Dawn of Darkness
by skysong-angel
Summary: Sonic and his friends are teleported to the planet of Cypris after a portal backfires, where a war is taking place. There, they meet 6 girls from the planet, who are mysteriously connected to the chaos emeralds in the form of elements. They are Team Free.
1. Prologue

**Skye: And again we embark on another journey!**

**Nova: I wrote most of the story.**

**Skye: and I edited it all.  
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**Cassandra: We do not own any of Sega's characters.**

**Boo: If you want, you can skip the prologue or just skim it; it's not really important, and it's just here to help you understand the story a bit better later on.**

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><p>Around 2000 years before the reign of Thorvlad, the country of Fortis on the planet Mobius was embarking on it's first space quest to other planets. The spacecraft was powered by nothing more than mechanics, as the Master Emerald, or any one of the Chaos emeralds were too much to spare. It was quite a large ship, able to easily fit over 2000 bodies, however, only 1000 were embarking on the journey. Their mission was to colonize on the planet Aestus, the closest planet to Mobius away from the sun.<p>

King Solis and Queen Lumine were the rulers of Fortis at the time. As they were both koalas, it wasn't surprising that they lived close to the equator. They were fair rulers, and the Fortis remained war-free throughout their rule. It was Queen Lumine that had suggested the journey, and the counsel had quickly approved the idea. It would greatly improve the knowledge of space, and give the astronomical engineers something to do. It was also the Queen who chose the 14 leaders of the mission. Presently, the day before the launch of the space vesicle, all 14 were summoned by the Queen to the floating Angel Island, home of the chaos emeralds and Master Emerald.

There were 4 men and 3 women, all of them different species, and from different parts of Fortis. The leaders included Luna Caliga, a female black-furred tenrec from an island in the tropics who was skilled in Astronomy, Nemus Sero, a male mountain lion from the northern region of Fortis who spoke most languages known on Mobius, Ventus Videlicet, a male brown galago who had previously served in the Fortisian Army as a pilot, Incendia Flamma, an female albino tiger, who was a medical worker, Silicis Aurum, a male panther, who was a geologist, Aqua Caeruleus, a female grizzly bear who excelled in mechanics, and Levitas Fulmen, a a common red-furred male hedgehog; an architect.

All of them answered the Queen's summoning, and on the morning before the launch, they gathered at the site of the emeralds. Queen Lumine was waiting for them.

"Now," the Queen announced, "You may all be wondering why I have summoned you." A slight breeze ruffled her dark brown wavy hair.

"If I may, your majesty," Ventus the galago cut in. "What does Angel Island have to do with this? You were very precise about the location."

Queen Lumine smiled. "You'll find out soon." Turning toward her right, she spoke to the Master Emerald's guardian, Praeses, a bright red Echidna, "You can bring them out now."

Praeses nodded, and walked behind the Master Emerald. He returned a moment later with a tray. On it were 7 vials of liquid, and 7 pairs of bracelets; each pair was a color of one of the chaos emeralds.

"These bracelets are enhanced with the shards of chaos emeralds," Queen Lumine gestured at the bracelets as she spoke. "Praeses here allowed two small pieces to be chipped from each of the emeralds. One shard each was put into the bracelets. The others were merged with this sterile saline solution you see here in these vials."

All eyes drifted from the bracelets to the 7 vials, each slightly tinted with the color of emerald it was enhanced with.

"But what does this have to do with us?" Aqua asked curiously. "Why did you do all this?"

"Each Chaos Emerald represents an element," Queen Lumine continued, "Purple is darkness and shadows, Green is plants and vegetation, White is wind, Red is fire, Yellow is earth and rocks, Blue is water, and Cyan is electricity and lightning. With your permission, each of these vials will be injected into your bloodstream, and you will receive your corresponding bracelets. They will increase your power and ability for the journey by allowing you to control your corresponding element."

"How do we know that this is safe?" Incendia asked suspiciously, "Fragments of crystal in our bloodstreams?"

"They're safe," the Queen replied, "Trust me."

"Why would you have to inject the emerald residue into us, though? Why not just wear the bracelets? Wouldn't that work?" Incendia asked again.

"Initially, we tried that," the koala explained, "But whomever touched the bracelets received an electric shock. Eventually, we figured out that unless you had the element literally _inside _you, and flowing through your veins, you couldn't touch them."

The albino tiger nodded in understanding.

"But why us?" Nemus asked suddenly, "Most of us don't even know how to fight! I mean, look at me!" the mountain lion gestured to himself, "I'm just a simple linguist! I can understand why you would choose Ventus and most of the others, but... why _me_?"

The Queen smiled. "It wasn't coincidental that I picked you seven. Sure, there are others out there, but... You're special. Do you remember the blood samples we took from you earlier on this year?"

All of them nodded. Prior to their selection for the mission, all of them had received a full physical and blood test. But that was nothing _unusual..._

"All of you have DNA that is compatible with these emeralds. Luna is darkness, Nemus is plants, Ventus is air, Incendia is fire, Silicis is earth and rocks, Aqua is water, and Levitas is electricity and lightning. I don't know why you're compatible, but you are. And so will be your descendents." Suddenly, Queen Lumine's voice grew serious. "This mission isn't the only reason why the bracelets were created. There will be a war, 2000 years from now, and your descendents will be the only ones able to fight. Praeses has been told this much from the Master Emerald. However, you do have a choice. You can back out of this now, and go on the mission without the elemental power of your bracelets. It's up to you."

"Count me in," Aqua stated immediately, stepping forward. "It serves a greater purpose, and I want to be a part of that."

"I'll take them too," Ventus spoke, joining Aqua.

Slowly, all the others joined Aqua and Ventus, and each, in their turn, were injected with the saline and crystal, and given their corresponding bracelets. Luna was the first to put hers on, and instantaneously, she gasped as a tingling sensation occurred on the inside of her right ankle. As she rolled up her pant leg to get a better look, she saw a purple crescent moon imprinted on her skin and fur.

"There's a mark on my leg!" she exclaimed, and hurriedly took off the bracelets. It was still there.

"The mark appeared on you when the solution was injected into you," Queen Lumine explained, "It reacts when you put the bracelets on."

All the other leaders experienced the same reaction. Nemus had a green leaf shaped mark on his shoulder, Ventus had a white swirl on his back, Incendia had a red star on her right thigh, Silicis had a yellow triangle on the back of his left hand, Aqua had a blue raindrop near her right elbow, and Levitas had a cyan lightning bolt on the top of his right foot.

"Only two beings can have the same mark at one time," Lumine told them, her green eyes searching every face, "The owner of the bracelets, and the one who will inherit them."

"What if we never have children?" Levitas challenged, "What do we do then?"

"If you want the bracelets to carry on, then someone must transfer some of your blood to theirs. Even then, the bracelets won't work properly. As I said, your DNA is compatible with the emeralds. It would still work for others, but not as it does for you." The Queen turned and rested her hand on the Master Emerald. "I will allow you to figure out the powers and abilities of the bracelets on your own. You are excused."

Bowing their heads in respect as they left, the seven leaders departed from the island. As soon as they were gone, Praeses spoke, "You know that they'll never make it to Aestus."

Lumine nodded. "I know."

"Why didn't you tell them?"

"Because then, they would never have left. If what the Master Emerald shows us is true, then there really will be a war in 2000 years. I want whoever is fighting it to be prepared." Slowly, the Queen sank to the ground, her fingers still trailing along the smooth green emerald. With a sigh, she murmured, "I know what will happen to their ship, and I know that we will never see them again. I just hope that whatever planet they land on, they'll be safe..."

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><p><strong>Skye: hope you like it so far!<strong>

**Cassandra: They're probably bored already! Nobody reads prologues!**

**Jolie: I do...**

**Skye: On to chapter 1 My minions!**

**Nova: I'm the one who wrote the story! I'll decide what we do!**

**Skye: Aha, but you didn't write the prologue. Or chapter 1. Or chapter 2. I think. :D**

**Boo: Please Review! Visit skysong-angel's Deviant Art account! Link is on skysong-angel's FF profile!  
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	2. Chapter 1

**Skye: Chapter 1! Which I wrote!  
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**Janna: I'm not in it yet!  
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**Cassandra: We do not own any of Sega's characters. Again.**

**Jolie: Janna, none of us are in it yet...  
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**Nova: I still wrote most of this story...  
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><p>The large blue planet of Cypris was under observation. King Thorvlad laughed evilly, and swiveled in his chair again to face the giant sphere that his moon, Ximos, revolved around, and with the tap of a key on the keyboard to his right, a radar map came up, showing the Cypronian city, Kryptonia. Smiling to himself, the wolf king pulled up on the map the Majon Forest that surrounded the southern half of the city. This is where he had begun.<p>

Sure, it was taking time, but King Thorvlad had all the time in the world. Even if he died, he still had two sons to take over after him. Still smirking to himself, the gray-furred wolf leaned back in his chair. Leisurely, he scrolled over the map of the forest. There was still no sign of the attackers that were picking off his creatures. Lately, many of his creatures had disappeared; their signals lost from his radar. Thorvlad suspected that they weren't your average Cypronians. His monsters were capable of killing any living creature.

All he knew about the Cypronians were that they were girls. All six of them. He had heard stories from the Kryptonia newspaper. _Girls, huh? _he thought, smirking. _I'll show them..._

Unconsciously, he fiddled with the cyan blue elemental bracelets that resided on his wrists. Thorvlad hadn't taken them off since the day he stole them and killed their previous owner; a black male hedgehog with the surname 'Soorley'. The king rolled up his right sleeve, and there, tattooed into his forearm was a cyan lightning bolt. After he killed Mr. Soorley, it had appeared. The color of the bracelets matched it exactly. When put to use, Thorvlad could control any form of lightning and electricity.

Thorvlad knew very well about the 7 elemental bracelets. If he didn't have that tattoo, then the bracelets would give him a shock, similar to what would happen if you grabbed a power line, minus the dying part. The tattoo signified that he was the true owner of the bracelets. The only way to get to that position was to kill the person who originally had them, and transfer some of their blood to yours, or for the mark/tattoo to be passed down via family tree. Blood. It was all about blood.

Originally, King Thorvlad had been aiming for the Purple bracelets; the ones that controlled darkness and shadows. To him, they seemed much more powerful than the ones of electricity. Their previous owner, Rodge Crest, was a tenrec, and lived on a tropical island in the city of Sentire. Unfortunately, the man had given the bracelets to his daughter, and Thorvlad hadn't seen her since the night he killed Rodge Crest's wife.

His mood declining as he thought about his failure, the king grumbled under his breath, "Stupid Tenrecs."

"King Thorvlad!" A red-brown wolf clad in a camouflage army uniform burst into the room. "The portal! It's backfired!"

Throvlad raised his eyebrows. "How so?"

For the past year, Thorvlad had ordered his engineers to build a portal from Ximos to Cypris.

"We turned it on to see if it worked, and it connected to another power source on another planet!"

"And? What's it going to do to that planet? It's hardly our concern if something happens to some random planet millions of light years away from Ximos."

"That's not the problem, sir!" The army wolf was growing desperate.

"Then what is?" Thorvlad's patience was running thin. "I don't see any problem here."

"We're sure that wherever the power source connected to will suck in anything around it on the other planet! No one knows what it will bring."

"That _could_ cause problems..." Thorvlad spoke casually. "But it won't. No matter what the machine brings, my creations can defeat it. Oh, and how is Project T coming along?"

"Fine, sir. The girl is responding quite nicely. She has no memories prior to her capture. Are you sure that you're not worried?"

"Quite sure. Oh, and could you bring her to me? Also, where will these... _things... _land?"

"In Kryptonia, sir."

"Thank you, that will be all."

The army wolf saluted, then left the room.

Casually, Thorvlad opened up the current files on the portal's energy transfer. The connection seemed to have occurred on a planet roughly the same size as Cypris. As he toyed around with the 3D globe of the planet, he noticed something peculiar. The energy source was coming from an island. The island was... floating... Quickly, the king pulled up a map of all the known planets in range. After browsing through them for about a minute, he found what he was looking for, the planet's name.

"So it's name is Mobius..." he murmured. "I feel like I've heard that name somewhere..."

"King Thorvlad, huh?" A sharp female voice snapped Thorvlad out of his thoughts. Elegantly, he turned to face a brown tabby cat clad in blue jeans and a black sweatshirt. He bowed in his chair, and smiled at her.

"Why, you must be Tabetha! How nice it is to finally meet you!"

"Cut the intros, king, you know why I'm here."

"I most certainly do." _She'll have to be put in her place soon enough, but she'll do._

"Send me out. You know what I want to do."

"Not yet, Project T. You're not ready yet."

Tabetha hissed. "I have a name, you know!"

"Yes, yes, of course. I just wanted to see how you were doing. I'll send you out to kill them later."

"Whatever." Tabetha turned on her heels and walked out of the room without so much as a word to her leave.

"Hot headed, that one..." Thorvlad murmured, "But strong... very strong. We'll have Cypris in no time. No time at all."

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><p><strong>Nova: Reviews are appreciated!<strong>

**Cassandra: yup**

**Boo: eyup  
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**Skye: Chapter 2 Next!**


	3. Chapter 2

**Skye: Chapter 2! Which I also wrote!  
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**Jolie: Now we finally introduce a few main characters!  
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**Cassandra: We do not own any of Sega's characters. Again. I'm gonna keep doing this for the whole story, aren't I?  
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**Jolie: yes. yes you are.**

**Janna: I'm STILL not in it yet!  
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**Nova: *sigh*  
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><p>A dark figure silently made it's way through the Majon Forest, the think canopy of trees blocking out any moonlight from the moon that shone brightly in the sky, a moon roughly around the same size as Mobius' moon. This was Zemoss, the moon of the planet Cypris. Cypris; the planet of wonder, as it is called in the Algarthera planetary system. The only planet in it's solar system to contain intelligent life, other than the barren wasteland of Silvor, where all living organisms had to live underground to escape the scorching heat of the outside world.<p>

Cypris' world is much like Mobius'. Days, months, years; all forms of time and measurement are the same. Cypris' moon Ximos also revolved the same as Mobius' moon, and currently, in the city of Kryptonia, in the Majon Forest, and on the island and continent of Leire, it was midnight.

A flash of pure darkness and hopelessness was all anyone would ever see, if they lived; which hardly anyone did nowadays if they were idiotic enough to venture into the forest at night. In the past, it had been safe; but that was before the attacks had started. The first was a little hedgehog girl and her father; they had been traveling home from a friend's house by foot through the forest. The girl had lived; sheltered by her father, and she described her attacker as a huge black monster.

Since then, dozens of other attacks had occurred, and everyone knew to stay well clear of the forest, except for a group of six Cypronians that called themselves Team Free. They had put it upon themselves to end the attacks and panic.

No one really knew anything about the six Cypronians except the army. They mostly kept to themselves, but it was rumored that one had relatives in Kryptonia. Some considered them unequipped; unable to face the challenge ahead of them, for you see, the six Cypronians that made up Team Free were teenage girls.

The dark figure continued through the forest. Although it was pitch black, the figure could see the forest as clear as day, having perfect night vision. A strip of moonlight shone through a crack in the canopy, and shone down upon the forest floor. The figure walked straight toward this point and stood there silently, revealing herself as a teenage tenrec girl. This girl had pure purple hair, the same color as the bracelets on her wrists, and a darker, almost black jumpsuit with the emblem of a moon surrounded by clouds printed on it. Her fur was pitch black, and her muzzle a light gray-brown color. In fact, the only colors that weren't dark were the yellow on her shoes, and the light gray of her gloves. The girl's eyes were the same color as her hair; that brilliant purple color, and as she stood there, they narrowed into slits. Crossing her arms, she smirked.

"You can come and get me now."

Almost instantaneously, a figure charged from darkness, straight at the tenrec. With a growl, it sprang up into the air, and unleashed a column of fire that illuminated everything within a half- mile's radius. Undaunted, the tenrec-girl activated invisible hover-jets on her shoes and flew to the right, out of range of the flames. She smirked. "You'll have to try harder next time, Cassandra," she spoke monotonously, slowly floating back down to where she was originally standing to face a very angry tiger-girl. "You're getting kind of predictable."

Cassandra growled. "You just think you're so awesome, don't you, Nova?" she hissed, clenching her fists, "Butting in and replacing me as leader."

"For good reason, apparently." Nova rolled her eyes. Cassandra had made this speech over a dozen times in the past month. "At least I didn't try to kill you to replace you."

Cassandra narrowed her eyes. "I will be leader again, Nova, I can promise you that. My hair hasn't changed back to normal yet."

Nova rolled her eyes again. "We've been over this already, Cassandra. Anyone who inhabits the bracelets and is the leader of a team has their hair turn their corresponding bracelet's color. You're the leader of Team Storm. That's why your hair is still red."

"I was referring to Team Free. Your darkness won't cast a shadow over my fire ever again once I regain leadership."

Nova turned her back on the hot-headed tiger. "Is that a threat, or are you just thinking of more items for me to put on my 'quotes of ways Cassandra wants to kill me' list?"

A flame appeared in Cassandra's hand, illuminating her blood red eyes.

Nova sighed. "Look, I still have to finish my patrol. You can either keep failing at surprising me, or go back to the base. I can assure you, you're not going to be able to surprise me at night, of all times."

Slowly, Cassandra backed up into the shadows. "I'll be back," she whispered.

Nova face-palmed. It was the same pattern every week. She (Nova) went out to patrol the forest for monsters, and Cassandra followed her, hoping to take her by surprise and claim her leadership. Quite frankly, Nova was getting sick and tired of it, saying that Team Free had been running patrols for about half a year now, since October. Now, on Thursday, March 31, it was getting _very _predictable when, where, and how Cassandra was going to attack her. Not that anything else was going to attack. After the little skirmish Nova's team had experienced with the creatures a month ago, they had refused to reveal themselves.

Finally, after an hour of walking discreetly through the woods, Nova came the the conclusion that nothing was going to leap out at her and try to maul her, so she started back to the base. Team Free's secret underground base was known about only by the members of Team Free, Nova, Skye, Jolie, Cassandra, Janna, and Boo. If anyone else found out its location, then they might report back to whomever was sending the monsters. Then it'd be lights out for Nova and the others.

When Nova reached the large tree at the southwest edge of Majon Lake that led down to the base, she paused for a minute, to make sure that no one was watching. Nonchalantly, she pulled up a piece of bark, revealing an implanted microphone, matching the color of the bark on the tree. To the untrained eye it would look just like bark, but Nova's eyes weren't exactly "untrained."

"I'm back," she whispered into it, then looked up as if nothing unusual had happened. She knew that Skye was checking the security cameras around the entrance; also disguised as trees; to check that it actually was her. A quiet whirr of machinery sounded, and some bark on the tree slid away revealing a numerical keypad. Quickly, Nova punched in the code, and stepped back about a foot away. The keypad closed, and the lower half of the tree slid to the side, like a sliding door. Ducking her head, the tenrec stepped into the tree (it _was _a very large tree after all) and the door closed behind her.

A stone staircase descended down underground to another door, which led to the underground base. Nova smirked, knowing that Skye was probably watching her right now. The cat had installed security cameras _everywhere, _even in their rooms. Of course, Nova had disarmed hers as soon as it was put in. She didn't exactly want anyone spying on her.

The base was under a fairly large island surrounded by two smaller ones, that resided in the lake, and the tunnel that led to it traveled underwater. Only two feet of rock protected Nova from the water. The tunnel had been created by Janna, Team Free's rock expert. It was no surprise that she knew tons about rocks; that was her element. What would have taken construction workers weeks to dig the tunnel took Janna about 20 minutes. Actually, there were four tunnels leading from the mainland to the three islands in the center of the lake which, coincidentally, were also connected by tunnels. It was safer that way. If one tunnel was discovered, they could just cover it up and use the others. The other two islands were used for training, and Skye's crazy inventions.

It took Nova about a minute of walking to reach the iron studded door that led to the base. Another keypad was implanted in the door, and she punched in the code.

"I swear," Nova muttered as the door slid open, "If we could have a lock on the refrigerator, we would."

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><p><strong>Boo: Skye, what is it with you and locks?<br>**

**Skye: I like locks...  
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**Nova: We can see that...  
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**Skye: I wrote the next chapter too!**

**Cassandra: Good. Less of Nova's writing!**

**Nova: T.T**

**Jolie: We 3 Reviews!  
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	4. Chapter 3

**Skye: Chapter 3! Which I also wrote too! :)  
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**Janna: Here comes Sonic!  
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**Cassandra: We do not own any of Sega's characters.  
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**Jolie: No, no we don't. But we wish we did.**

**Nova: You wish you did.  
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**Janna: So do I!  
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**Skye: :3  
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><p><em>Meanwhile on Mobius...<em>

A gathering was taking place on the levitating structure known as Angel Island. The guests; Amy, Cream and Cheese, Rouge, Shadow, Knuckles, and Sonic; invited by a now not-so-young Tails the fox, were now bombarding him with questions about his appearance, all except for Sonic; the cause of it all. Currently, the blue hedgehog was sulking behind the crowd around Tails.

Earlier that same afternoon, the fox had called for the named Mobians to meet at Angel Island, whilst arriving on the floating island himself in the X- Tornado; he was surprisingly accompanied by Sonic, who for some reason, had decided not to run there himself.

"So what's the purpose of it all?" Rouge the bat asked, raising her eyebrows. "You call us all here, and you're suddenly six years older?"

"Well," Tails started, placing his hand on the back of his neck awkwardly, "I invented a machine that can change anyone's appearance to any age, and I tested it out on myself, and, well..."

"It backfired." Shadow the hedgehog stated monotonously.

"Well..." Tails grinned, "Not exactly."

_-Flashback-_

"Hey, Sonic? Sonic! You listening?" Tails sighed. The blue hedgehog just wasn't paying attention.

"Huh?" Sonic responded dully, staring out of Tails' workshop at a pink-clad figure outside.

Tails stomped in front of Sonic and shook him. "Sonic! You need to stop staring at Amy and pay attention! You said you'd come over here to help me!"

"Heh heh... Sorry Tails..." Sonic said, not sounding very sorry at all.

"Okay, good, you're listening." Tails turned away from him. As soon as the fox's gaze had disappeared, Sonic's eyes were back on his girlfriend. _Man, is she hot! _he thought, whilst resisting the urge to race over to her.

Still not noticing that the hedgehog's attention was diverted again, Tails continued his lecture.

"All I need you to do is hold this button–" Tails motioned to a large red button that had the word 'ACTIVATE' written in black ink on it, "for _ten_ seconds. The timing is crucial. Did you get that?"

"Uh huh." Sonic mumbled unconsciously, not knowing what he was agreeing to.

"Okay! I think we're ready!" Tails announced cheerfully, turning to his invention that the button would activate. It was a small machine, only large enough for one Mobian to fit into, and looked something like an escape pod one might find on a space station, or space colony ARK for that matter, except it wasn't translucent. Once closed, no one could see in or out, and unlike many machines used for experiments, the power button was on the inside and was turned on inside the capsule.

It was a machine designed to alter one's physical age to another, but the effects would wear off in 2 hours.

Tails punched in a code on a keypad on the door, and with a soft hiss, it opened. Still without Sonic noticing, he stepped inside, closed the door, and turned it on. A loud whirring noise emitted from the machine, which woke up Sonic from his "trance."

"Sonic! Press the button now!" Tails shouted above the noise.

_Oh crap! What do I do? He said something... Wait; the number 10! Tails said something about 10 somethings... Oh! I know! He wants me to push the button 10 times! _

With that thought in mind, Sonic was next to the button in a flash.

_Hmm... It must be the one that says ACTIVATE on it..._

It only took about 2 seconds for the button pressing to finish.

"Okay, Tails! You can get out now!" Sonic called out.

"But it hasn't been 10 seconds yet!" came the reply from inside the machine.

"Oh." _Crap crap crap crap I'm so fricken screwed..._

Quickly, Sonic held down the button until the whirring stopped. The door creaked, and suddenly swung open, revealing a much older Tails the fox.

"Hey, it works!" Sonic grinned. _Maybe...I'm not screwed?_

"...Is that so surprising?" Tails asked hesitantly, raising his eyebrows.

"No! No it isn't!" Sonic spoke quickly. "What was the setting on that thing anyway? How old are you now?"

"Well, I'm 6 years older; basically I'm what I would look like when I will be 14. I didn't want to make it so that I'm older than you." He laughed. "That'd just be weird. Anyway, the effects should wear off in an hour or so."

_-End of Flashback-_

"Really, Sonic?" Amy dryly questioned the blue hedgehog.

"I'm sorry!" He exclaimed apologetically to his girlfriend, "But... you were just..."

"I think we get it." Shadow rolled his eyes.

"Ah shut it, Faker," Sonic shot back.

Shadow glared at him. "I've told you. Don't. Call. Me. Faker."

Sonic advanced threateningly, before Rouge stepped between them.

"Now, now, ladies, you're both beautiful. Please try to keep the head ripping to a minimum this time."

Before either arguing hedgehog had a chance to reply with a snappy comeback, a strange vibrating noise started behind them.

"What the...?" exclaimed Shadow, turning towards the sound and narrowed his eyes at what he saw. It was the Master Emerald.

Knuckles cautiously stepped forward and put his hand on the green gem, his purple eyes clouded with confusion. Instantaneously, he stepped back, as a strong breeze started circling around him and the gem.

"What's happening?" Cream the rabbit screamed in fear. The master emerald was now glowing, and emitting a strong suction from it's depths.

"I don't know! It's never done anything like this before!" came the deep reply of the emerald's guardian, Knuckles, whilst shielding his face from the debris being sucked in.

Being the lightest; Cream was having difficulty keeping her footing. Slowly but surely, she was inching closer and closer. Finally, with a shriek of fear, the rabbit was lifted of her feet and sucked in to the Master Emerald, along with Cheese.

"No!" screamed Amy, breaking away from Sonic. "Cream!" Thinking quickly, Sonic darted forward and held her back.

"It's useless." Shadow growled, narrowing his eyes while surveying their surroundings. "Everything's getting sucked in."

"Master Emerald! Please!" Knuckles was bowing to the green gem. "We need you to– AHHHHH!" The bright red echidna was the second to be sucked in.

"Two down, five to go," Shadow murmured darkly.

"I didn't know you had a sense of humor," Rouge smirked, leaning against the wind.

He turned towards the bat. "Who's laughing?"

"Stay with me Ames!" Sonic shouted, still restraining the pink hedgehog from jumping after her friend.

"But we have to save her!" Tears streamed down Amy's face.

Sonic gave her his trademark grin. "Then we'll go together. Ready?" The blue hedgehog picked Amy up bridal style. "Let's go!"

"They're both idiots." Shadow rolled his eyes and dug his metal shoes deeper into the turf to keep his balance as the hedgehog couple disappeared into the green depths of the gem.

Meanwhile, Tails had somehow made it back to his ship, the X- Tornado, and was there to witness his "big brother" entering the emerald. Smirking softly, he murmured,

"I'm not going to let you go on another adventure without me, Sonic." With that, he strapped himself in the ship, and turned it on.

The rumble of a motor took Rouge's attention away from everything else for a moment. What she saw shocked her so much, she almost stopped flying. Tails was flying his ship straight towards the Master Emerald!

"Shadow!" she gasped, pointing to the sight.

The ebony and crimson hedgehog turned to look, and instantaneously, had the same facial expression as if he were seeing someone with an atomic bomb, ready to blow up Mobius.

"What the hell does he think he's doing?" Shadow shouted, ready to spring up and stop the fox. "The X- Tornado is more than 10 times the size of the Master Emerald! Tails will crash!"

As it turned out, Tails did not crash. As he got closer, the large ship seemed to shrink in appearance until it was about the size of Tails himself. Then, he was gone, teleported through.

"We may as well follow them." Rouge stated, "They'll probably kill themselves out there without us."

Shadow sighed. "This is probably the most idiotic thing I've ever done in my life. Let's go."

* * *

><p><strong>Boo: Sonic's an idiot, isn't he...<br>**

**Cassandra: *Facebooklike*  
><strong>

**Skye: I'm so used to Deviant Art, that I keep trying to add in plz account icons... :iconsonictardplz:  
><strong>

**Nova: All the rest of the chapters in the story are the ones I wrote.  
><strong>

**Cassandra: Dang**

**Nova: :] Deal with it  
><strong>

**Cassandra: Stupid tenrec**

**Janna: Please review!**

**Skye: I should probably say at this point: Please no flaming. XD  
><strong>


	5. Chapter 4

**Skye: Dang, I didn't write this one...  
><strong>

**Nova: Ha. ha ha ha ha.**

**Skye: :P  
><strong>

**Cassandra: We do not own any of Sega's characters.  
><strong>

**Boo: I wanna say it next chapter!**

**Cassandra: No. Mine.**

* * *

><p>The pitch black tenrec stepped quietly into the main room of the base, making sure the iron studded door closed quietly behind her, so to not wake up anyone. As Nova silently made her way down the hallway to the main living room, she was lost in thought over the events of the past month.<p>

_ Why would they stop attacking? _She thought, her eyebrows furrowing together, _They bring everyone's hopes down when they do, and when they finally have the ability to attack and destroy everything, they stop. What's happening? _

She let out a quiet yawn and looked at the clock that was implanted on the far end of the living room, which she had just entered. It was about 3:30 in the morning, and she wanted to get some shut-eye, saying that she'd been up for almost 24 hours. The stereotypical action music of a video game resonated from the TV, but the sound was just a buzz in Nova's ears.

"Yo, Nova," Jolie's voice sounded from the couch in front of the TV.

"Hey," Nova replied, letting out another yawn in the process, "How's the new game?"

"Good, but the music needs more bass."

"I can understand why you'd say that, Jo." Nova remarked, cracking a smile. Jolie ginned.

"Of course."

Jolie was the wind-controller of the group, and played a mean bass guitar. Being the only hybrid in the team, a galabat, (galago and bat mix) she had the features of a galago, but had bat wings, and sharper than normal canine teeth. Her hair was a formidable length, so she braided it to keep it out of her face while in flight, however, on this occasion, Jolie had let it hang loose, and it cascaded in black and navy blue waves down her pajama clad back as she hunched over her game controller. Nova still couldn't tell if she dyed the blue in it or not.

"Skye still up?" the tenrec questioned.

"I don't know." Jolie replied, not taking her eyes off the screen. "She should be if you just came in."

"Well I'm heading to bed," Nova mumbled, whilst stretching the kinks out of her back that she had gathered from her patrol. "You should soon, too."

"Why? It's not like we're doing anything."

"We have to go to the army base tomorrow; it's another meeting." Nova saw Jo's smile disappear as she paused her game to turn and look at her team leader.

"I don't get it. We have to go to that base every two weeks and talk about what we've seen," Jolie snapped, "and guess what we've seen? Nothing! We've seen nothing for over a month now!"

"Better to be safe than sorry." the tenrec had to lean on a wall to prevent herself from collapsing on the floor and falling asleep right there, "Just saying, if you wanna get more rest, you should head to bed soon."

"I will, just one more level. Night, Nova."

"See ya in the morning."

Nova's footsteps, even though they were quiet, could be heard all over the dead silent base after Jo turned her game off. The sound ended, however, when Nova stood in front of a door with a painting of a rock on it. This was the door to Janna's room. Nova quietly opened the door to see if the jaguar had fallen asleep. Somebody had to check on her before they could go to bed to see if she was doing okay. Janna had ADHD, and sometimes decided to "go places" spontaneously. The Majon forest wasn't a place that anyone wanted Janna to be at night.

A small smile formed on the tenrec's lips as she saw Janna snoring in her bed, her limbs splayed randomly at odd angles over the sheets. Quietly, Nova crept into the room and carefully laid a blanket over the sleeping girl. Using her night vision to look around the room, she noticed that Janna's rock pile in the far corner of her room had grown bigger. Nova sighed, and made a note to herself to convince the girl to leave some of her rocks outside. With that done, she tiptoed out the door and shut it softly, then continued her journey to her room.

Nova's faded white glove glided softly on the beige painted walls, the unevenly cut wood keeping her hand from traveling in one straight direction. The sound of her footsteps continued to echo down the underground hallway. Nova closed her eyes and pretended to sleepwalk to her room. She had memorized where everything was, and could easily give a tour of the place with her eyes closed, along with every other member of Team Free.

Nova's eyes snapped open when she reached her bedroom door. The dark stained wood of the door greatly contrasted the light beige color of the walls, and looked quite odd. No one really cared, though. It wasn't like anyone visited. The tenrec gratefully twisted the doorknob and opened her room, not even bothering to turn on the light. Not that she needed it. Nova's night vision took care of that. Staring mirthfully at her bed, she murmured, "I thought I'd never see you," then proceeded to collapse on it, face first.

Rolling over, Nova looked up at the ceiling, the glow in the dark stars pasted there gleaming in the darkness. They were growing fuzzier each second, as the tenrec's vision started to blur. Her eyes felt like they had weights attached to them. Even after she closed them, the stars still remained. Pictures started forming behind Nova's eyes, created by the glowing stars. A face, no, two faces... smiling with love and joy, locked in each others embrace. A young girl, smiling with true joy...

With a gasp, the tenrec sat up in her bed, and snapped her eyes open. She had seen exactly what she had been avoiding for four years. Tears started to form in her eyes before she blinked them away. Nova looked on her nightstand to see a picture of a younger version of herself in the embrace of two older figures. Angrily, she reached out and pushed the picture down so she couldn't see it and turned onto her other side to face the wall.

_Why did you have to leave me...?_

Tears were once again forming in the tenrec's eyes, and Nova didn't fight them. She just let them flow down her cheeks as she let out a quiet sob. After a few minutes, she finally fell asleep, the images of her parents still imprinted behind her closed eyes.

* * *

><p>A pair of yellow eyes opened, and gleamed in the darkness. The stillness and quiet of the air reassured their owner that everyone was asleep. Quietly, the figure let out the breath she had been holding, slowly pulled the covers off of her, and walked silently towards the door. Ironically, she happened to be the one that was sleeping when Nova checked on her. A smile appeared on her face as she opened her bedroom door and stepped into the hallway.<p>

"I think it's time for Janna to take a really, really, really, late night walk!" She ran through the hallways, though making sure to be quiet so nobody heard her. They didn't want her going out at night, so they were mean!

Janna's smile got even bigger when she got to the door that would take her to the outside world through the tunnel. "Fresh air is nice," she whispered while she opened the iron door and ran through the stone hallway and up the stairs.

* * *

><p><em><strong>FWOOOOOOOOOSHHHHH!<strong>_

A bright light appeared in the sky, deep within an unknown forest, just over some saplings. After it disappeared, Shadow and Rouge landed on the ground, and saw everybody else who was pulled into the Master Emerald.

"Wow, you both decided to come?" the red echidna asked, "I thought Shadow was gonna go and angst in a corner and Rouge was gonna steal the Chaos Emeralds."

"Well, if I knew where they were, I would've taken them." the bat admitted.

"Wait… We're in the middle of an unknown area with no Chaos Emeralds?" Shadow exclaimed, "This is probably the worst time not to have them!." his eyes narrowed while facing the crowd.

A small laugh ended Shadow's rant.

"Who's laughing?" Amy questioned, whilst being hugged by Sonic and Cream.

"It sounds like a fox that we know, but he finally hit puberty," Rouge said teasingly, "and it is."

Tails' laughing ended. "Thanks, Rouge." he said sarcastically. The twin tailed fox sighed, "We do have the emeralds; they're in the X-Tornado."

"And where is that?" Sonic asked while shivering, "It's pretty getting cold here; we should make a fire so we don't freeze to death. Wherever we are, I'm pretty sure it isn't summer."

"It's over there in a small clearing." Tails replied, gesturing to his left. "I didn't want it all scraped up by tree branches. It was pretty convinent that I landed there."

Rouge tucked in her wings, "You're right, blue boy. It is getting cold. You'll live up to your name if we don't get warm soon. I wonder why the temperature dropped so suddenly?"

Knuckles stood up, "Actually it's been cold since we all got here. I guess we stayed warm because of an adrenaline rush, but now, since we're calmed down, we can feel how cold it really is."

"Wow," Amy commented after the echidna's statement, "You're smart."

"It's because I know how to survive in the wild, Amy." Knuckles suddenly got up from where he was sitting on the ground, and walked around, randomly picking up sticks.

"What are you doing?" Rouge's voice sounded annoyed by what he was doing.

The red echidna stopped after a few seconds of looking and picked up a single stick, "These kind burn; the dry ones that aren't on trees," he explained, "If you just take branches off a tree, it won't burn. We should split up and start looking around for sticks like this."

Cream jumped up, "Good idea, Mr. Knuckles!" the rabbit looked down the started playing with a patch of dirt. "When we get all of them together, would you... maybe... can I set them up?"

Knuckles serious face struggled not to smile, but he just had to let out a small one, her face was just so adorable. "Sure."

The rabbit jumped up with joy, "Yay! Thank you, Mr. Knuckles!" she ran and hugged the non-expecting echidna, which made him jump.

"No problem," Knuckles said while his smile disappeared into a serious expression, "Shadow, Rouge, and Sonic. You're a team."

"B-but I wanna be with Amy!" the colbat blue hedgehog whined, "She'll help me work better!"

"Work better at what? Making out on the job?" a dark voice asked behind Sonic's back.

Sonic spun around to face Shadow to argue him, he could feel his face getting warmer; he was blushing, "N-no!"

"I think it's better if we split up for a bit," Amy added in, smirking a bit.

Knuckled tried to stay on topic, "Cream and Tails, you both stay here and find a good patch of dirt and find some rocks," The rabbit and fox saluted the echidna, "Amy and I will go look for some sticks, too."

And with that, everyone was at work.

* * *

><p>Janna could feel a shiver go up her spine, "Maybe this wasn't a very good idea…" she whispered to herself, "this place is scary at night. How can Nova handle it?" Her footsteps grew more and more uncertain, as she trekked through the unfamiliar forest.<p>

_I should have brought a coat, _Janna thought while shivering, her black fur doing no good against the cold of the night.

Patches of moonlight were scattered randomly around her, and the shadows they created didn't help Janna at all in her present situation.

Suddenly, she heard a rustling sound coming out of a moon bathed bush. Without thinking, she started screaming. The source of the moving bush came out; it was a little blue creature, that looked scared and alone. "Chao?"

Janna looked down at it before ending her screaming. She had no idea what it was, so she bent down and just stared at it, her light brown curly hair falling forward, framing her face. The creature seemed genuinely surprised too, and stared back. "Umm… Hello?" Janna spoke haltingly, twitching her tail.

"Chao, chao?" It replied.

"You don't look that dangerous." Janna finally said after getting a good look at the creature. "Are you lost, little guy?"

The strange creature nodded, "Chao chao chao chao!"

"I'm sorry, but I can't understand what you're saying."

It face-palmed and flew up and landed on the jaguar's head, "Chao," it pointed at itself.

"Are you saying you're a Chao?" Janna asked while taking the blue animal off her head. "Sorry, it's just, I've never seen a creature like you, and I'm in a questioney mood."

Its head nodded.

"Well then, Mr. Chao" the jaguar set it back on her head, "I'll help you look for whoever you're looking for!"

"Chao!"

* * *

><p><strong>Janna: I like nighttime adventures...<br>**

**Cassandra: *Facebookdislike*  
><strong>

**Skye: Janna janna janna...  
><strong>

**Nova: I WROTE THIS ONE  
><strong>

**Cassandra: WE KNOW  
><strong>

**Boo: :D  
><strong>


	6. Chapter 5

**Skye: So, will Janna be consumed by the evil forest? Tune in now to today's volume of DAWN OF DARKNESS.**

**Cassandra: We do not-  
><strong>

**Boo: WE DON'T OWN SEGA OR SONIC OR-  
><strong>

**Cassandra: *smacks Boo over the head with a frying pan***

**Nova: Now now, Cassandra... I thought we had already worked out your anger issues...**

**Cassandra: You wanna be next?**

**Skye: Aaaand we are moving on now...  
><strong>

* * *

><p>"Good, I think we've gotten enough wood," Knuckles said about 15 minutes after everyone had split up, "Cream, Tails, did you both get rocks and find a dry patch of dirt?"<br>"Yup," Tails answered.  
>"Now that that's done, can I set up the sticks?" Cream asked, while giving Knuckles the puppy-dog face.<br>The echidna smiled. "Yes, but make sure that you don't use all of the pieces. We'll need extras."  
>Cream was already by the patch of dirt setting up with sticks after Knuckles had approved. She was singing happily, as if pretending that she was working on an art project.<br>"Shadow," Knuckles continued, "Can you use your Chaos Spear to start up the fire?"  
>The ebony hedgehog shrugged, "Fine." He folded his arms. Normally he would say that he crossed his arms because he didn't want them hanging on his sides, but now he was doing it because he was getting colder. He had to fight to prevent himself from shaking; doing so was a sign of weakness.<br>About a minute had passed, when Cream finally jumped up. "Done!" Everyone looked at the pile of sticks carefully set up so none of them would fall and mess up the fire, "Does it look okay?"  
>"It looks perfect," Amy answered with a reassuring smile on her face.<br>Sonic looked at Shadow. He knew that the ebony hedgehog was fighting not to shiver. "She's done. You can start the fire now."  
>Shadow looked around so see if anyone else was shivering too, and they all were. With that, the hedgehog walked closer to the "fire pit," charged up his Chaos Spear, and was ready to fire. "Everyone stand back." They all nodded and followed his instructions. After checking see if everyone was ready, he put his hand up, "Chaos… Sp-"<br>**"**_**AHHHH!"**_  
>A loud, distant scream made everyone jump, including Shadow. The jump made him lose his balance and fire his Chaos Spear at the tree Sonic was hiding behind.<br>"Shadow! Are you _CRAZY? _I nearly got hit!" Sonic yelled, walking up to the black hedgehog in anger. The remnants of the tree were black and smoldering.  
>"Don't tell me you weren't surprised at that scream!" Shadow said while trying to defend himself from the other hedgehog's remark. "I saw you jump, too!" Everyone had disregarded the scream by now. Watching Sonic and Shadow argue was much more entertaining.<br>"I would think that the calmest one in any situation wouldn't jump at a simple scream like that!" Rolling his eyes, Sonic turned away from the other hedgehog.  
>"Why, I oughta..." Shadow said with anger increasing in his voice. A fresh Chaos Spear started to form in his hand.<br>Amy saw what Shadow was going to do. _If Sonic gets hit by one of those Chaos Spears at that range, who know what will happen! Shadow isn't thinking straight! _Without thinking, Amy jumped out to push her boyfriend out of the way. "Sonic!"  
>"Huh?" Sonic answered, unbeknownst to the rising danger behind him.<br>With Sonic distracted, Shadow fixed his stance, ready to fire the Spear in his face when Sonic turned back to face him.  
>Sonic finally faced Shadow, but he was pushed out of the way by Amy again when Shadow was about to fire his Spear. It happened so fast, that when the ebony hedgehog did fire it, it flew right into the fire pit with a loud crack.<br>Rouge came out and slapped the back of Shadow's head and lectured, "You can't be fighting right now! We have no idea where we are, and we need to work together!"  
>Tails walked over by the fire and sat down on an extra log. "Rouge's right, Shadow. Fighting won't get us anywhere but working together will," the twin tailed fox took off his gloves and put his hands close to the fire so they could warm up.<br>Shadow narrowed his eyes and let out a simple "Hhmph," then sat by the fire, and within a few seconds, everyone else was sitting by it as well.

* * *

><p>"I spy with my little eye, something blue."<br>"Chao."  
>"How do you always get these?"<br>"Chao, chao."  
>"Oh yeah. You can only say one word and I keep asking the same question." Janna stated while thinking about how stupid she was. The Chao just chuckled. "You sshush, you blue thing." Janna replied with mock strictness.<br>The Chao didn't reply, and just looked forward and did nothing, "Chao?"  
>"Huh?" Janna's ears perked up, wondering what her new friend had heard.<br>Voices were echoing from the distance, and the Chao seemed to recognize them. He got off of the jaguar's head, and started flying in the direction of the sounds.  
>Janna watched him fly off for a bit. Since he was small, he couldn't move very fast. "Wait! I can help get you there faster!" The jaguar ran towards the Chao and grabbed him, still running in the direction where the voices were coming from.<br>After about a minute, Janna and the Chao could see a light, and it looked like fire, "Well, it's been nice to meet you, but I think I should be getting home now."  
>"Chao?" the Chao said while frowning.<br>"I-I'm sorry, but I really have to go. If I get caught I'll be in huge trouble," Janna said while stepping back.  
>The floating blue creature tried to pull her back, but he couldn't. He was too weak, but he kept trying. "Chao!"<br>Janna looked back at the area where the light was coming from and narrowed her eyes, "I'm sorry, little guy," with that, she threw the Chao towards the light, it screaming in the process.  
>"Cheese?"<br>"What are you doing here?"  
>"Cheese! I missed you"<br>"Chao!"  
>"Someone is by those bushes?"<br>Janna's heart skipped a beat as she tried to back away, she started to sweat, and her heart started pounding. She was in panic. She couldn't move. If she got caught, she would be dead from either the unknown creatures she was hiding from, or by her team.  
>"I'll go check to see if he's telling the truth," a deeper voice said, but it sounded kind. Janna took it all in.<p>

_What if they are nice? Maybe like the Chao that I now knew is named Cheese? Maybe... maybe... I could just see. NO! If they're not, I could be attacked and hurt, maybe even killed. B-but the voice sounded nice..._

The war she was facing with herself when she heard a stick snap, and with that, the sprinted in a random direction. A dip in the ground caused her to stumble, and a hot pain shot up her knee. Janna didn't care. She had to run to get away.

"Hey!" the voice echoed through the forest, "Someone was spying on us!"

Janna was now being followed, and the route she had chosen to run was a bad one. Her boots were landing on twigs and branches, making loud snapping noises whenever she took a step, which only lead whoever was chasing her in her direction.

The jaguar found a tree with low branches so she jumped onto it and starting climbing. After she was about ten feet up, she stopped to re-fill her empty lungs with needed air. The pain in her leg was starting to take full affect, and she winced. Her ears came up as she heard steps coming near her, and she could hear her heart beating loudly; so loud, that she was sure her chaser could hear it.

"Hello?" the voice asked, "Who are you, and why were you spying on us?"

The jaguar looked down to find a strange animal that she'd never seen before; it was bright red and had what seemed to be dreadlocks.

"I'm not gonna hurt you. I promise," the voice said with confidence.

Janna wondered if she should go down there. What if he was a hungry monster that would devourer her? But he seemed to be friends with Cheese, who had glued to her right after they met. What if...

Suddenly, the branch she was sitting on snapped, and Janna let out a yelp. As she fell, branches beat her all the way down, cutting her, and injuring her knee even more. The jaguar finally hit the ground on her back, which knocked the wind out of her. Gasping for air, she lay on the ground, trying to get her breath back. Minor cuts on her back and arms were bleeding, but the worst was on her cheek. She couldn't see it, but could taste the blood as it ran down her cheek and past the side of her mouth. All in all, she was pretty beat up, but her attention was focused elsewhere, at the creature in front of her, ready to defend herself if it were to attack.

"Are you okay? You look pretty beat up. Sorry about that, I thought you were a spy." The red person offered his hand out to the jaguar.

Janna looked at his body from head to toe. She knew that her chaser was a male, and pretty buff one, too. She took his hand, and he pulled her up.

"Please, come with me. My friend can look at your cuts and fix you up. I'm really sorry."

The jaguar was ready to say no, but was stopped by the blood dripping in her mouth. She was pretty beat up. She needed some attention, but everyone else was sleeping at home, and wouldn't be able to get in without waking them up. After finally ending another fight inside her head, she stepped closer towards the male, favoring her left leg.

He put his arm around her shoulders to give her some support. "I'm Knuckles, Knuckles the echidna," he introduced himself, "Who are you?"

Janna didn't speak; her lugs were still recovering from her lack of air and her fall. She simply looked up at him to see if he could notice how much pain echoed in her eyes.

A few seconds passed, and the echidna got no response. "I wouldn't be talking either if I was in your condition," Knuckles said with a sigh, "I'm still sorry that I caused this mess."

It wasn't his fault, it was hers. If Janna hadn't left the base, then this would've never happened. Cheese would still be alone in the bush, though. He could've frozen to death. She'd saved his life, which made her feel a little better, but it didn't last long as she stepped wrong on her bad leg and fell onto the cold ground.

"Gah!" Knuckles jumped. "I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do that!" He rushed to Janna's side and picked her up again.

_It wasn't your fault, Knuckles. It was mine, but I still accept your apology. _She gave a reassuring smile to the worried echidna.

Knuckles suddenly looked up and smiled. "I can see the light of the fire. We're almost there."

* * *

><p><strong>Janna: Why do I always get hurt?<br>**

**Skye: Ask Nova. She's the one who wrote it.  
><strong>

**Janna: Nova?**

**Nova: Umm... I think it's time to go to chapter 6 now...  
><strong>

**Jolie: Review plz!  
><strong>


	7. Chapter 6

**Skye: Well, last chapter before I go to bed.**

**Nova: It's the last day of 2011!**

**Jolie: I'll never get the hang of writing 12 instead of 11.**

* * *

><p>Everyone looked at Janna with shock as Knuckles brought her into the camp near the fire. Carefully, he helped her sit down on a log. The jaguar payed no attention to any of the others. She just stared at the fire. It reminded her of Cassandra. Boy, were they going to be mad...<p>

Her trance was broken when someone stepped in front of her. Slowly, she looked up to face a fox. Extraordinarily, he had two tails.

"Hello. My name is Miles Prower, but you can call me Tails." He gave the jaguar a reassuring smile. "You look pretty beat up. Want me to bandage you up a bit?"

Janna stared at him for a second, before looking at Knuckles, who simply smiled at her. The jaguar looked back to the twin tailed fox and nodded, and with that, Tails sat down next to her, and opened the first aid kit that he was carrying.

While Tails was helping Janna, Cream was talking to Cheese.

"So she saved you in the forest?" Cream asked her friend.

"Chao," (Yes.) Cheese exclaimed happily.

"Well at least you're safe." Cream reached out to hug her blue friend. Cheese, however, flew out of her reach, and and looked over at Janna with worry as she winced from the medicine Tails was putting on her. "Don't worry, Cheese, she'll be just fine."

A few minutes passed, when the fire started dimming.

"Guys, the fire's going out." Amy pointed out.

After looking at the fire, Rouge spoke, "I'll go grab more wood from the pile." The white bat walked over to where the wood pile was. Or should have been. "Umm... We're out."

Shadow looked away from where he was looking at the injured jaguar, and into a dark part of the forest. "I'll go look for some wood," and with that, he got up and walked away.

Sonic jumped up. "I'll go, too. I think I saw a pile of wood that would be great for burning." The blue hedgehog ran off in the opposite direction of his black 'look-a-like.'

"Okay, I think I've got all your cuts except for your cheek," Tails finally said, while dabbing medicine on her arm, "After I finish with that you'll be fine."

Janna nodded and looked down at her injured leg. She'd forgotten about it after Tails started putting the medicine on her cuts. The medicine burned on the wounds for awhile, so it had distracted her from the pain in her leg. Knuckles, however, saw what she was looking at.

"Hey, Tails, I think she injured her knee too. She limped all the way here and I had to give her some support."

"Is that right?" the fox looked at the jaguar's knee. He didn't notice it before, but it was swollen. "I'll look at that after I'm done with her cheek."

* * *

><p>The dark forest looked dangerous from every corner, but the ebony hedgehog didn't care. He was used to 'scary places.'<p>

"For some strange reason, I think that the Master Emerald wanted us here. It's energy level went pretty high before everyone got sucked in..." Shadow thought out loud, "Maybe someone needs our help. Maybe it something to do with the strange girl that Knuckles brought back..."

Shadow was deep in thought, so he didn't hear the quiet steps behind him. Unknowingly, the hedgehog was being followed. Now he was the prey.

The ebony hedgehog then continued to look around the forest. He forgot that he was looking for firewood, but he wanted to explore; he wanted to know where he was. After a few minutes of looking around, Shadow found a lake that glowed under the light of the moon. It seemed a formidable size; the other side was almost a quarter mile away. In the center were a few islands, and they too had trees not unlike the ones on the mainland. He walked down to the shore and sat down, removing one of his gloves in the process. One of his fingers glided over the water, but he quickly pulled his hand out.

"The water's... Warm?"

Shadow thought that water like this would be cold; the air around it certainly was, but it wasn't. _I wonder..._ He put his glove back on.

His mind was still jumbled with different questions, none of which he could answer.

_**Growllll...**_

__Shadow's eyes widened as he jumped to his feet, _What was that? Nobody came with me... And I'm not hungry. _He backed away from the lake, thinking it was something from it, but the further he backed away, the louder the growling got. The ebony hedgehog was now in defense mode. Nothing moved. Shadow's crimson eyes scanned the area, but he could see nothing unusual.

Without knowing what else to do, he just sprinted deep into the forest.

* * *

><p>"I was right!" Sonic ran back to the group with a whole bunch of sticks and twigs in his arms, "I thought that I saw a pile!" the hedgehog's happiness ended when he realized something, "The fire went out."<p>

"Shadow's been gone ever since you left." Amy said, grabbing some of the firewood Sonic just brought, "We've been sitting here cold for over 20 minutes."

Sonic raised an eyebrow, "I was gone for that long?"

"Yeah," Tails answered, still looking at Janna's leg, "Man, you twisted your leg pretty bad." The fox tried to move it to stretch it out, but Janna gritted her teeth in pain. "We need to get this leg checked out better, but for now," he said while walking towards the X-Tornado, "we'll have to improvise."

A minute passed when the fox returned with a thick and long bandage, "We'll have to wrap your leg with this so you don't twist it more." He started wrapping the bandage around the jaguar's leg. "I don't know where you live, but you can't go back tonight. You're in too bad of condition to go anywhere."

Janna simply nodded _I just hope that nobody will attack me when I sleep... If I do, I think I can trust the fox, echidna, and Cheese, but I don't know about the others. _The jaguar looked over to where everyone else was, they were all huddled up, trying to stay warm. She narrowed her eyes _They helped me when I was in need... Now it's my turn to pay them back. _

With that Janna closed her eyes and started to think. To make a fire she needed a special type of rock that could make a spark to make a flame. Within seconds she knew what kind to look for. Flint. She struggled to her feet, putting most of her weight on her good leg.

"What's she doing?" Rouge questioned.

"Don't ask me." Knuckles responded.

They all stared at the weak jaguar who seemed to be concentrating; her eyes were squinted shut.

Janna's bracelets started to glow yellow as she put her arms up. She could feel the rocks underneath her feet. She lifted them up with her power, and they burst through the dirt forest floor, and floated over by the fire, surrounded in a yellow aura.

The group of huddling friends felt all of their jaws drop at what she was doing.

"Dude... That's just creepy," Sonic finally spoke.

Janna opened her eyes and looked at the rocks. They would do.

"Somebody throw some small sticks into the pile." she commanded with a strong tone.

Cream got up and picked up some sticks. She then walked over to the pit and threw them in. "Like that?"

The jaguar smiled. "Perfect." Cream simply nodded and joined the group again to try to warm back up. Janna just kept concentrating, her leg was about to give out and she was sweating from the effort she was putting into such a small thing. Normally, it wouldn't take her this much energy, but she was _really _tired, _really _hungry, and her emotions were acting up. The jaguar used her powers to strike the rocks together. It took her about 10 tries, but eventually she make a spark on the wood, which started the fire again. Slowly at first, but it grew with each passing second.

She did it. Even though she was weak, she'd done it. A sigh of relief escaped her mouth before she collapsed onto the log again.

The fire snapped, and sparks rose into the air. Everyone was staring at Janna.

"Who are you?" Knuckles finally asked to break the silence.

The jaguar sat up and smiled, "I'm Janna, Janna the Jaguar."

* * *

><p>"S-stand back! I-I'm warning you!" the ebony and crimson hedgehog yelled with panic in his voice, "You d-don't wanna get in a fight with m-me." <em>Maybe if I play helpless, they'll figure I'm not worth the effort... <em>

There wasn't just one growl now, there were many. Huge shadowy figures were appearing everywhere Shadow looked. A voice came from somewhere in front of him.

"Surrender, hedgehog. You're hopeless. You've got yourself backed into a corner." the voice paused to let Shadow look back at what he just put himself into. He'd put himself into a corner of the bottom of a cliff.

"Come with us and we won't hurt you... Much."

Laughter echoed the area of the forest, Shadow knew that he had just lost, but he wasn't going to give up. Maybe he could find a way out. "Well if you want me, I'm not coming to you. You'll have to come to me." Shadow's eyes were narrowing.

"Well if you insist," the same voice responded. The sun was slowly coming up, so Shadow could get a good look at one of the creatures that had been trying to get him for about two hours. The one that came out seemed to be the leader of the pack, supposedly the one that started it all. It was an animal that walked on all fours; patches of black and brown and black covered it's body. It also had armor that looked like it had spikes on it which were rusted. It seemed that it couldn't talk because it's lips didn't move when it spoke, but the sound resonated from thin collar around his neck.

"Okay, let's make this as easy as possibl- WHAT?"

With a flash, Shadow disappeared into thin air, he reappeared behind the creature and used a Chaos Spear to hit off the rusted spikes on it's armor, then he punched it in the face after it turned around. The creature was put out cold. Screams of panic surrounded the hedgehog, and he thought that they were going to attack him for bringing down their leader. Shadow got into a defensive position and narrowed his eyes. "Who's next?"

The hedgehog's ears came up to hear that shrieks fading along with feet that seemed to be running away. Shadow's serious face faded away as he let out a chuckle, "Wimps."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Bee- SLAM! <strong>_

__"Curse you, alarm clock," at groggy voice mumbled, "You just ruined the best dream I've had in weeks," a pair of orange feet with black stripes on them slammed against the floor, starting to walk to the door of the room, "It's 6 a.m., already?" the voice's rant continued, "Didn't feel that long, but whatever."

The figure walked over to the door next to her room, and slammed on it, "Rise and shine, Raindrop!"

"Shut up, Cassandra!" someone in the room replied, "Give my five more minutes."

Cassandra smiled, "Sorry! The tiger clock doesn't have a snooze button. Get your bear butt out of bed."

"Shut up! I'm trying to sleep!" someone from the end of the hallway shouted.

"You get up too, Twinkletoes!"

"I told you not to call me that! Call me the awesome video gamer or something!"

"Make me!" the tiger taunted.

A door slammed open to show a grumpy galabat, who's hair was tangled from rolling in bed. "I need to get my 'Beauty Sleep,' so shut up."

"What you really need is a hairbrush." A brown cat walked in from the opposite end of the hallway and laughed while rubbing her eyes.

Jo glared at the cat, "I'm gonna beat you with a shoe, Skye."

"Tsk tsk," Skye taunted, "Someone stay up too late playing video games?"

The door next to Jolie's opened up to reveal a bear.

"Well since this little rant woke everyone up, let's go get some breakfast."

"No it didn't, Boo." A devilish smile appeared on Cassandra's face, "Nova hasn't woken up yet."

"And who thought that?" a darker voice said from behind the tiger, which made her jump.

Everyone laughed except for Cassandra. "Very funny, tenrec," The tiger's eyes narrowed, "Is that everyone?"

"Janna's still not awake," Boo pointed out, "I'll wake her up while you all get breakfast ready." Everyone else nodded and headed across the living room/hallway. (read description for map) The bear walked to the back hallway, and opened the first door into the jaguar's room.

"Time to wake up, my crazy friend," she tried to keep her voice as gentle as possible, "Let's go get some breakfast."

No response from Janna.

Boo walked up to Janna's bed and removed the covers. "Come on, Janna. Le- GAHH**!**"

Everyone ran back to the jaguar's room after Boo screamed, all of them worried about what had caused her to scream.

"What? What happened?" Skye asked with fear in her voice.

"I-it's Janna! S-she's gone!"

* * *

><p><strong>Janna: I like rocks<strong>

**Cassandra: :)  
><strong>

**Skye: Le Gasp! Cassandra... Smiled?**

**Nova: Random...  
><strong>

**Boo: Please Review! We'll give you imaginary cookies if you do!  
><strong>


	8. Chapter 7

**Cassandra: It's still the last day of 2011...**

**Skye: ah, the wonders of going to sleep and waking up in the same day...**

**Jolie: A day where we don't own any of Sega's characters**

**Boo: :J **

* * *

><p>The sun rose, spreading warmth and light across the sky, taking the place of the moon. The Majon forest's tree tops took in it's warm rays, the canopy of trees blocking a good amount of the light, but some seeped through a few gaps, and shone down upon the forest floor. Light hit the last-minute made camp showing the morning dew and fire ashes surrounded by a circle of rocks. The warm sun removed everyone's chills, and slowly woke them up.<p>

Janna twitched in her sleep as the light hit her. "Mmrmph," she groaned. "Cassandra, stop it. I'm getting my sleepy time."

"Who's Cassandra?" Amy's voice cut into Janna's ears.

Janna's yellow eyes shot open. _So last night wasn't a dream_, she thought, blinking her eyes that were adjusting to the light of day.

"... Just a friend," Janna replied, and sat up from where she was lying on the ground. A frown appeared on her face.

Sympathy showed in the pink hedgehog's face. She had been sitting by the jaguar while she slept. "Oh. Don't worry. We'll find her and the other friends you have."

Janna rubbed the back of her neck. "I hope so."

"What time is it?" Knuckles asked from across the camp while yawning.

"Don't ask me," Tails answered, "I don't think anyone knows."

Janna looked at the confused pair. "I think I can tell."

"How?" Rouge murmured sleepily to Janna. Rouge wasn't a morning person.

The jaguar simply looked up at the sun that was partially hidden by the trees. "If I could get a little higher up I could look at the sun." She was too weak, tired, and hungry to do anything. Lifting up the two small rocks had nearly made her pass out.

"Let me help!" Cream's small voice came from behind Janna. Cream grabbed Janna's hands, and all at once, they were airborne. Janna's eyes widened as she was picked up into the sky, "What the?"

"I thought I could give you a hand!" a happy voice chanted above her. Janna looked up to see Cream smiling. The rabbit had picked her up so she could look at the sun.

"How do you do that?" the shocked jaguar asked in midair.

"How do you pick up rocks?"

"Touche."

The rabbit chuckled, "It's simple," she answered, "I just flap my ears."

The conversation ended when they were both above the trees. Janna squinted her eyes to try to find out what time it was. The sun was mostly above the horizon. A few seconds passed when she realized something.

"Oh no! The others are probably wondering where I am! They're up by now!" Cream nearly dropped the jaguar, who had surprised her with her sudden exclamation, but was able to get to the ground safely.

"What's wrong?" Sonic asked.

Janna was hyperventilating, "I-I'm sorry! I have to go!" She started to run off before the pain in her leg came back and she started falling. Before she could hit the ground, someone caught her.

"You're NOT going without us," Knuckles commanded while pulling Janna up.

Janna could only shrug, "I don't know. Cassandra and Nova might not approve. They never do when I have an idea."

Knuckled raised an eyebrow, "Who are Nova and Cassandra? Why don't they approve of your ideas? You seem to have some pretty good ones."

"Well..." Janna's muzzle started to get red. "I have ADHD, so normally I'm kind of goofy with my decisions. Nova's the team leader, so she's in charge. Cassandra used to be leader so she thinks her opinion is also important. The two always fight."

The others stayed silent while taking everything in, "You really have ADHD?" Tails asked, "You haven't been acting like you have it."

"When I'm around people I don't know, I guess shyness takes over." the jaguar shrugged again.

Knuckles gave Janna a small smile, "Well hopefully you won't be shy to us soon," she gave him back a faint smile, "Now, let's go find your friends."

Sonic looked around, "Wait, where's Shadow? Didn't he go out to look for wood?"

"I guess we're looking for Janna's friends and Shadow then," Rouge answered, "whoever we find first will hopefully help us to find the other or others."

"Good idea!" Amy chanted with joy, "Let's get going!"

* * *

><p>"I'm sorry but we can't make it today... A member's missing... Janna... If we find her before the conference we'll go... Thank you," Nova let out a sigh after putting the phone down. "We're not going to the conference. We're looking for Janna."<p>

"Really?" Jolie asked, excitement gathering in her voice.

"Yup," The tenrec replied with a serious tone, "But if we find her before it starts, we're going."

The galabat jumped with joy, "Yes!"

"Hey, don't be cheering," Skye looked at Jo, her normally friendly eyes narrowed into an expression of seriousness. "You know Janna. Who knows what could have happened to her?"

Boo automatically started naming worst case scenarios, her eyes widening. "She could've been mauled by those monsters!"

"I highly doubt that, Boo. Calm down," Cassandra said, "She's not that stupid."

Nova narrowed her eyes while walking to one of the tunnel doors, "Let's get going."

"What about breakfast?" Boo slightly protested.

The tenrec glared at Boo, "I'm my opinion, going hungry is a better choice then one of those creatures having a full stomach," she looked forward and pressed a button which opened the door, "Unless of course, you don't care about your team member in danger, then you can stay here."

"Even though I hate your guts, I think you're right," Casandra said while walking up to Nova. "Who's with us?"

Everyone then grouped at the door, "Find Janna as soon as you can," the tenrec continued, "Jo, take her to the medic room _right_ after we get her back if she's hurt." A smile appeared on her face. "Boo, after that you can make breakfast."

"Okay," Boo and Jolie replied with serious tones.

Nova looked back to the team before she ran through the tunnel, "We'll go in groups of two to find her."

"But there's five of us," Skye stated.

"I know," the tenrec answered, "Cassandra, you go solo. I know that you like to be leader, so you can lead yourself. Boo and Jolie are a team, and Skye, you're with me." she then sprinted down the hallway.

Cassandra narrowed her eyes, "Smart a-"

"OKAY! Let's go!" Skye interrupted the tiger's angry statement. "The quicker we get this done, the quicker we can eat." After Skye's final words were spoken, everyone was running down the hallway to catch up to the tenrec that was in the lead.

* * *

><p>"And that's what happened... I'm sorry, Master. We got mixed up," the leader of the pack admitted to his owner, Thorvlad.<p>

A cold glare escaped the gray wolf's eyes. "So the power source didn't come from the bracelets?"

"... No, Master. It seemed to come from two different things on radar," the creature started to back away.

Throvlad paused for a second, "Two? So one of them could be from the bracelets? Why did you follow the black hedgehog then?"

The creature replied nervously, "The hedgehog was alone, and we thought that we could bring him down, then use him to get the other things that were on radar." Its voice started to become a little more serious. "I have a feeling that whatever the other signal was, it wasn't the bracelets. When we zoomed into the location, there were _seven_ signals instead of six."

The wolf didn't reply. _Seven? How could there be seven? I have one pair of the bracelets and the others have their pair. Seven...? _his eyes narrowed in thought. _Wait a second..._ He turned in his chair and looked at a screen, "There's only one thing that has more power then the bracelets."

"What is that?" the creature winced to hear its master's answer.

"Classified to you," Throvlad replied, "You're dismissed. Go get your armor fixed."

The creature nodded. "Yes, Master." Then it ran into the hallway.

Thorvlad's cyan eyes scrolled around the screen, reading all of the notes that he'd written over the past years. He stared at the screen for a few more seconds, and when he found what he was looking for, His eyes widened in shock, and he tensed up. "No, this can't be true!"

* * *

><p>"So there's six of us on the team." Janna was trying to explain Team Free to everyone while they were searching for Shadow and the others. "I could tell you guys about all of us if you want."<p>

Cream, who was walking next to the jaguar and holding her hand, exclaimed "Oh yes! Please do so!"

Knuckles was giving Janna support on her other side. "We should at least know what we're looking for."

Janna took in a deep breath in a goofy fashion; she was acting like her normal self around them already. "Okay, so you've already met me and know how I'm able to control rocks. The reason why is because of these bracelets I'm wearing. None of you can wear them though, because you don't have the birthmark to wear it." she pulled the neck of her shirt up so her mark could be visible on her neck; it was a yellow triangle mountain. "With this mark and these bracelets, I can do a whole bunch of stuff with rocks, and that's why I'm a 'Flier' in the team. Well, Team Storm at least. We split into two teams for stuff sometimes. Three of us are in Team Storm, and three of us are in Team Unity. I can use the rocks to make me float in the air and stuff."

Sonic ran in front of the jaguar, "Who do you want to talk about next?"

"Well... What about Boo?"

Tails was extremely interested in the topic of Janna's elemental friends. "Sure!"

"Boo is a bear, and is able to control water. Her mark is a raindrop and it's on her right ankle. She's also able to run really fast in wet areas, but she has problems with dry ones."

"So you all have weaknesses?" Rouge asked, "What's yours?"

"I-I really shouldn't be telling you guys these things. You all might be bad guys," Janna admitted, "You already got two members of the team which is enough."

The twin tailed fox nodded, "I see. You just don't want your friends to get hurt. That's fine, but can you tell us what they look like?"

Janna smiled, "I don't think they would mind that... Well Boo is a brown bear that wears a blue shirt, a jean skirt, and black boots. She normally likes to have her hair up in pigtails. Cassandra is a tiger and she has red hair, a gray shirt with a yin-yang sign on it, black shorts, and her shoes have spikes on them."

Sonic butted in, "I already feel threatened by Cassandra even though I don't know her."

Everyone laughed at the hedgehog's statement, especially Janna. "Everybody does! Now... I got Boo and Cassandra done," she thought of the next friend to talk about, "Skye is a brown cat with darker really really long brown hair, a white shirt with a green star and green sleeves, black shorts, and she has knee high socks."

"Miss. Janna, why are you only naming the girls in the team?" Cream asked.

Janna smiled, "Because the entire team is made up of girls."

The group stayed silent for a few seconds, "Slumber party!" Amy cheered.

The black jaguar continued, "Jolie is a hybrid between a galago and a bat, she has bat wings and sharp bat teeth," she had to think of another way to explain her, "She's gray and her eyes are red. Not her pupil things, but the part of the eye that's supposed to be white," Janna smiled, "Galagos have that weird trait... She also has her hair in a braid and it's black with blue highlights in it."

Knuckled raised an eyebrow, "What's a galago?"

Janna chuckled, "It's a type of lemur. I think. Now... One more member. Nova is the leader of the group so I might as well warm you before I explain her, if she sees me like this, she'll blame you all and attack on the spot."

Sonic blinked a few times, "Then why are we looking for her and the rest of the team? What happens if we find her first?"

"She's over protective of the group. She does it because she cares for us," Janna smiled, "Nova is a black tenrec with a dark blue jumpsuit, a purple belt, and purple hair."

"Thanks for explaining," Tails said, "It will be easier to find them now that we know what that kinda look like."

Janna nodded, "They're worried sick of me... And I know it."

* * *

><p><strong>Janna: :D<strong>

**Boo: Review please!**

**Jolie: Janna... come out come out wherever you are!**

**Janna: ha ha**

**Nova: Onwards! To the next frontier!  
><strong>


	9. Chapter 8

**Skye: should old acquaintance be forgot-**

**Cassandra: Yes, it should. Especially if the old acquaintance is Nova...**

**Nova: ...**

**Janna: We don't own Sonic! or any of Sega's other characters!  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Cassandra marched through the forest. She was pissed. She was pissed at Nova.<p>

"As soon as we find Janna, I'm gonna punch that stupid tenrec in the gut," her eyes narrowed as a chuckle came out of her mouth, "Then maybe I can beat her up and become leader again." The tiger's fantasy ended when she heard something coming from a bush. Her bracelets glowed as fiery daggers formed in her hands.

"Hello?" She asked cautiously, her ears perked up to try and find out which bush was making noise, "I don't know who you are, but I can kick your butt easily!"

"I don't want any butt kicking going on," a dark voice came out of a bush.

Cassandra turned around to find the moving bush, "Then what do you want?" her eyes narrowed and she changed her position so she could attack, "Why are you here?"

"For your first question, I'm just trying to get back to camp. Sadly, I can't answer your second question."

_Oh great, a tourist, _"Where's your camp? I can help you."

"I don't think I'll need a _**girl's **_help."

Cassandra's bracelets glowed as her anger grew. "WHAT? JUST BECAUSE I'M A GIRL DOESN'T MEAN I'M WORTHLESS!" her daggers slashed through the bush, "I'LL SHOW YOU HOW 'WORTHLESS' I AM!"

The bush burst into flames, and a figure jumped out of it and into the tree above it.

"OKAY! Okay. You're not worthless!"

"That's what I thought." The tiger's daggers turned into flames before they vanished. "Get out of that tree before I burn it down along with you."

"Fine." the figure jumped in front of Cassandra but didn't land in the burning bush. "Because you're not worthless, I'll let you help me find out where I am."

Cassandra's eyes widened, she'd never seen someone like this guy before. It was a hedgehog with red highlights in his quills. "Who are you? If you tell me I'll help you."

Blood red eyes stared directly into Cassandra's; they were both the same color. "I'm Shadow. Shadow the hedgehog."

* * *

><p>"Janna? Are you there?" Boo looked at a huge rock. "I'm hungry, Jo."<p>

"And you think I'm not?" Jolie sat on the rock that Boo was looking at, "Have you noticed that Nova's getting more strict?" the galabat randomly changed topic.

Boo frowned, "Yeah. But she's been staying in her room whenever she can. She never does that. I think I know why too..." she kicked a leaf that was by her and sighed.

The galabat stared back the the frowning bear, "Why? Is she sick off us?"

Boo looked at Jo with shock, "What? NO! She loves like we're her sisters!"

"Then why is she like this?"

The bear looked down again, "It's been about four years since the death of her mom and the disappearance of her dad. I've been hearing her cry herself to sleep for a week now."

"Oh? How do you know about her parents?"

"You know that I'm like the 'Group Counselor.' She told me that when we first met."

Jo's eye's narrowed, "Why didn't she tell the rest of us?"

"Because it's really hard on her. I know that you don't know what it's like to lose family."

The galabat looked at the sky. "I know what it's like to be sick of your family. That's why I ran away in the first place, and you always visit your parents back at Krypronia. So I guess neither of us will know what it's like."

"It seems that we're the only ones where we know where our parents are... Besides Cassandra, she knows where her dad is," Boo pointed out.

Jo looked back at the bear. "Where's he? Why haven't we met him?"

"He's in jail."

"Oh..."

"You don't really know anything about our past, do you?" Boo raised an eyebrow, "You and Cassandra were the first two members, and you don't know anything about us?"

Jo rubbed her neck, "Maybe I should lay off the video games."

Boo laughed, "Good idea. Now, let's get back to why we're out here."

"I second that motion."

* * *

><p>Skye's bracelets glowed green as she adjusted some bushes. "Nova, do you think Janna's okay?"<p>

"No idea."

"What would your guess be?"

Nova turned to the cat with annoyance in her voice, "I don't know."

Skye's eyes narrowed, "Okay! You don't have to be a jerk about it! It was just a simple question!"

The tenrec sighed, "I'm sorry. It's just that times are tough for me right now, and I'm worried about Janna." she turned back to the bushes.

"What's wrong?" the cat stepped closer to Nova, "Wanna talk about it?"

"No. I'm fine. I'll live."

Skye put her hands on her hips, "Liar. You've been acting weird lately. You're not fine; yeah you'll live but you're not fine."

Nova turned back to Skye. "Fine, if you want to know, I'm kinda depressed right now."

The cat smiled, "Let's talk about it, you'll feel better."

Nova looked back at the ground, she wanted to tell but she was scared that Skye would freak out. She finally got the confidence to speak after a few seconds of thinking of what to say. "Well... It's nearly been four years since the death of my mother. She risked her life for me because I was new with the bracelets and I didn't know how to use them," the tenrec sighed.

"What about your dad?"

"He's gone and all of his records have been destroyed. I guess that happens if you died in the war?"

Skye stared at Nova for a few seconds, "He was in the war?"

"He was forced to. There's a strange fitness test back at Sentire and if you pass you get sent into a camp to train," the tenrec knew this too well.

"Like a physical?"

"I guess," Nova shrugged, "He was one of the first to do it so he didn't know what it was for."

The cat patted the depressed tenrec on the back, "Feel better?"

"A little."

"Good. It's good to do that kind of stuff. Wanna look for Janna again?"

Nova's eyes widened, "I forgot about that." She started walking deeper into the forest before stopping. "Skye?"

Skye stepped up to her. "Yeah?"

A smile appeared on the tenrec's lips, "Thanks for being a good friend."

"No problem!"

* * *

><p>Cassandra and Shadow were walking through the forest. Shadow was looking forward, but the tiger, who was intrigued by the strange visitor, just stared at him.<p>

"So... How did you get lost?"

Shadow looked at the tiger before answering, "I was supposed to look for firewood but I got carried away. I was looking around but keeping track where I was by making a mark in the dirt with my shoe."

"What made you stop?"

"I was being followed by these weird creatures. They were walking on all fours and-"

"They were black and brown with rusted armor? They're common in this forest. You're not from here, aren't you?" Cassandra knew exactly what he was going to say.

Shadow blinked a few times, "They're common? Also, no, I'm not from here."

Cassandra sighed, "Yeah they're common. Everyone knows about them. The only one I've met that didn't know about them is you."

The hedgehog laughed, "There's more then just me. I've got others at my camp that have no idea that they exist."

"Cassandra?"

"Shadow?"

The two looked forward to respond, and as they walked forward into a large uphill grassy clearing, Janna and some others came into view.

"Janna? Oh my God, what happened to you?" Cassandra gasped.

Janna giggled, "I fell out of a tree."

"What are you doing with Cassandra?" Sonic asked, "Getting hooked up, faker?"

"We ran into each other, idiot."

"You're with them?" the tiger was processing everything.

Rouge joined the conversation, "Yep, and he got lost, right, Hun?"

Shadow narrowed his eyes, "Shut up, and don't call me Hun. We're not dating and we never will."

"She calls everyone Hun, Shadow!" Amy laughed and Cream joined her.

Cassandra's eyes were still staring at Janna, who was beat up everywhere. She put her wrist up to her lips, "Guys, I found Janna," her tone showed that she was in shock.

Boo's voice came out of the tiger's watch, "Really? Where are you?"

Skye was the next to reply, "Is she okay?"

"I have no idea. She's hurt but she's acting okay."

"What's your location?" Nova questioned.

"HI GUYS!" Janna screamed, making everyone jump, "I LOST MY WATCH AGAIN SO I COULDN'T TALK TO YOU!"

"I'll make you another one," Skye offered, "Now where are you, Cass?"

"We're near high meadow ground." Cassandra's communicator stayed silent for a few seconds, then, "Boo and I are near there so we'll be there in a sec," Jo assured.

"Okay," Cassandra concluded after putting her arm down. "Janna. You're grounded."

"You can't tell me what to do!" Janna taunted, "You're not leader anymore!"

Cassandra sighed, "Soon I'll be leader again, you'll see. Anyway, I'm the leader of Team Storm."

"Hello?" Boo asked behind some trees that bordered the clearing.

"BOO!" Janna screamed again which made everyone jump... Again.

"JANNA!" Boo yelled before jumping through the trees. Her smile vanished when she saw a huge group of strangers around her friends.

"Nova and Skye will be here in a sec," Jo looked at the crowd, "Wow. Who the heck are you guys?"

Sonic stepped up, "We're lost... Janna found us and we thought she was a spy so Knuckles chased her. She fell out of a tree which is why she's all beat up."

"Everyone step away from Janna except for you, red guy. Keep holding her up," Jolie commanded.

The echidna nodded, "Okay... And I'm Knuckles."

Everyone stepped away as Jo got closer to look at Janna's injuries, "You're pretty beat up," the galabat poked Janna's bad leg which made her wince, "We're gonna have to get an x-ray of that."

"It can't be broken!" Janna protested, "I can still walk on it but it hurts like heck."

"I know it's not broken, it's just that the muscle got damaged and I have to see how bad it is."

Janna smiled, "Okay dokey!"

"They should be right here," a voice came out of some trees, "Then we can all go home and eat!"

"Whatever."

Boo jumped, "Breakfast?"

"Boo!" Skye jumped out of the trees and hugged Boo.

"Skye!"

Cassandra hissed, "Hello, Nova."

Nova was looking down at the down at the ground, "Cassandra." the tenrec looked up to find a group around her, but she only cared about Janna. Nova's eyes narrowed and looked at everyone that was around that jaguar besides her team,

"What have you done to her?" Nova spoke in an ominous voice and everyone saw the anger in her eyes.

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><p><strong>Skye: oooooh Nova's piiiiiiiiiiiiiissed...<br>**

**Nova: -  
><strong>

**Boo: Now now Nova... calm down...  
><strong>

**Cassandra: FEEL THE WRATH OF THE TIGER!  
><strong>

**Skye: well then... Review please! :D  
><strong>


	10. Chapter 9

**Skye: wow... 9th chapter in one day! :D**

**Jolie: And in all of those 9 chapters, we don't own sega's charaters...**

**Skye: However, we do own ourselves... Somehow that works...**

**Cassandra: ?**

**Boo: Just go with it, Cass...**

**Nova: Steve... XD  
><strong>

* * *

><p>"They're out of camp, Master," a voice came out of a speaker in King Thorvlad's office, "What do you want us to do next?"<p>

After Throvlad's main creature had told him about the seven signals, he had discovered that the signals were coming from items called Chaos Emeralds. Shadow's signal was received because he had Chaos Energy in his blood, but the Emeralds were raw power. Throvlad knew that the emeralds were what gave the bracelets 'Life.' There was no other explanation. The colors and energy levels were almost matching.

"Break into the plane and take the emeralds, all of them. Don't leave any evidence, and bring them back to me with no questions asked." Thorvlad ordered strictly.

"Yes, Master."

The wolf king's eyes narrowed as a wicked smile appeared on his face. "If I get those emeralds, taking over Cypris will be simple."

If he had the emeralds, that meant he could use the them to control the bracelets... And the ones wearing them. His first plan had been to kill the owners and take the bracelets for himself, but now that the emeralds were in the picture, he could control Team Free. He could use them to take over Cypris so he wouldn't get his hands dirty. He wouldn't have to fight them like his creatures.

His plan was perfect and simple. The six girls couldn't do anything to fight back with him in control of their minds.

* * *

><p>Sonic and his friends crowded behind Knuckles and Janna. The jaguar was right; If Nova saw her like this, there would be hell to pay, but for some reason Nova didn't attack, she only stood there with pure anger radiating in her eyes.<p>

"I'm sorry... We didn't mean to hurt her..." Cream's voice came from the back of the crowd.

The tenrec didn't reply, but her shadow disappeared and a sword formed in her left hand, "Why did you do this?"

"We didn't!" Sonic yelled desperately, "She found us and Knux followed her! Then she came back like this!"

Knuckles glared at Sonic, "Thanks for blaming me."

Cassandra looked down, "Nova, you might think they're lying, but I think they're telling the truth."

"Wanna join them then?" the tenrec raised an eyebrow. The tiger only backed away from the crowd, and closer to the trees surrounding the clearing. Nova glared back at the group that was surrounding Janna. "Put the jaguar down," she commanded.

Knuckles tried to hand her to Boo, but Janna kept struggling, "No! I'm not going! Don't hurt them, Nova!"

"Why?"

Janna glared at the tenrec, "Because without them, who knows how I would be now? Those weird monsters could've attacked me. I'm weak, the monsters could bring me down easily."

The jaguar's words echoed through the wind for a few seconds, "Fine," Nova's sword vanished and her shadow returned, "I won't hurt them."

Janna smiled, "Thanks."

"But," Nova continued, "I do want to know what you guys are doing here."

Rouge was the first to speak, "We got sucked into the Master Emerald and ended up here."

"The whatta whoota?" Skye questioned.

"The Master Emerald is the controller of the Chaos Emeralds," Rouge answered.

Boo looked confused, "Chaos Emeralds?"

Knuckles looked at them with shock, "Everyone knows what the Chaos Emeralds are!"

"Well we don't," Jolie leaned on a tree and crossed her arms, "I guess you guys aren't from here."

Tails looked up, "We aren't..." his eyes widened, "Oh no! The Emeralds! We left them at camp!"

"What?" Shadow yelled, "You left them at camp? That's the reason why those creatures were following me!"

Cassandra looked at Shadow with confusion, "Really?"

"They thought I was one because Chaos Energy is in my blood."

"Hehe... Monsters thought you were a rock," Sonic chuckled.

Skye narrowed her eyes, "Well if they're that valuable... You guys should go get them before they get stolen."

Tails nodded, "Good idea..."

"Skye," the cat smiled.

"... Tails," the two shook hands.

Cassandra spoke up, "Hey, where'd that stupid tenrec go?"

Everyone looked around. "Maybe back home?" Boo thought of an answer.

"She wouldn't leave us like that just to go home," Jolie pointed out, "Well, anyway, she'll meet us back there. Let's go back ho- GAH!" she tripped and landed on the cold grass.

"Jo?" Janna started to freak out.

"M-my head is pounding!" Jo yelled, clutching her head, "I never get headaches like this!"

"Nobody hit you..." Boo thought out loud, "Maybe someone has a voodoo doll?"

Everyone looked at her with confusion, "A voodoo doll?"

* * *

><p>"Don't poke it like that!" a creature said while smacking another ones head, "It hurts the owner of the bracelets!"<p>

"Whoops, sorry," the other creature apologized while putting the White Emerald into a bag, along with the other ones, "Why does master want these?"

"He said no questions asked," it replied, "we should hurry, they'll come back soon."

"Hey... Way hasn't Master given you a name?"

"What?"

"You know... He normally names his favorites. You're one of his top assistants!"

"I never asked about that..."

A voice suddenly echoed through the camp, "HEY! Don't you know not to take things that aren't yours?"

"Ah, crap! Hurry, grab the Emeralds!" the two ran off, disobeying one of Throvlad's rules; don't leave any evidence. Their paw prints were left all over the camp, and they had trashed Tails' plane.

Nova jumped out of the tree she had been hiding in. "That was easy..." the tenrec looked at the damage on the plane, "Pretty scratched up," she commented, running her gray gloves over the metal surface. She then looked at the engine, and her eyes widened. "Looks like they're not going anywhere in this."

Nova's eyes wandered around the trashed camp, and a strange glowing gem attracted her attention. It was cyan colored, and shone as if a light resonated out from inside it.

"Is this one of those Chaos Emeralds?" she bent down to pick it up, but it, along with her bracelets, glowed, and a painful shock of energy went up her arm. She winced, "What the heck?"

"What happened!" Sonic was the first to arrive, "What happened to our camp?"

Nova was still in shock from the Emerald. "Is that one of the Emeralds?" she asked warily as she backed away from it.

The hedgehog ran over to it, "Looks like they missed one," he picked it up, "Why didn't you grab it?"

"It shocked me."

"It what?"

"Sonic! You know how I hate it when you run ahead!" Amy ran up and hugged her boyfriend, "Don't do it again!" The blue hedgehog didn't reply, only stared at Nova with question in his eyes. Amy glared at the tenrec, "Why is he staring at you?"

Nova stayed silent and stared at the emerald _The shock didn't really hurt... Too much... But man, it felt weird. Numbing more than anything..._

"Why is everyone ignoring me?" Amy whispered, "Did I do something bad?"

"... No" Nova finally replied after a few seconds.

Everyone else was catching up, "Are you okay?" Rouge asked.

Skye walked up to Nova, "Boo and Jo are taking Janna to the base... Nova?" the cat waved her had in front of the tenrec's face, "What happened?"

Nova shook her head, "Wha...?"

"What happened?"

"I... Don't know," the tenrec paused, "Their camp is messed up..." she looked at the others, "Skye, do we have enough room at out base for them?"

Cassandra's eyes widened in shock, "Are you high?"

Nova glared at the tiger, "No, I'm just curious. That weird gem shocked me when I tried to pick it up. I don't think that's normal. Plus they're not from here, I don't want them where they're vulnerable."

Knuckles joined the conversation, "It never does that! The only way that they would shock something is if there's a foreign Chaos Energy by it..." his eyes widened, "Maybe your bracelets are foreign..."

Skye tapped her foot, "I think we have enough room in our base... And we could always weld our beds together and make bunk beds. We wouldn't have enough beds... but I could weld some more."

"Are you a mechanic?" Tails questioned.

Skye stared at the ground. "Somewhat... More of a computer geek than anything..."

The twin tailed fox grinned at her. "Cool! I work on machinery and stuff. I could help you weld and build the stuff we need."

Skye blushed, and cursed herself for having a white muzzle. "O-okay... That'd be great! We could start when we get back to our base."

"That should be fine," Nova spoke up, then looked back at Knuckles, "How do you know so much about the emeralds, anyway?"

Knuckles smiled, "I'm the guardian of the Master Emerald. I know everything there is to know about the Chaos Emeralds," the echidna said this with pride in his voice.

"Good," Nova concluded, "Let's go home."

* * *

><p>Throvlad's sharp claws tore through the arms his chair as he roared in anger, "WHAT?" his teeth were grinding, "YOU SOMEHOW LOST ALL OF THE EMERALDS?"<p>

"No!" the creature protested, "We have one..." he reached behind his back and pulled out the red emerald, "The bag we used seemed to have a hole in it and we didn't know."

The king calmed down slightly, "Only the red one? I guess we can improvise with one."

"What's your plan?"

Throvlad smiled, "This is just to scare them... But first we need to find out where the owner of the red bracelets is located."

"How do you want that to happen?"

"Send out biggest creature to Kryptonia. I know the owner lives close to there."

"Yes, Master. Oh, and I was, um, wondering..."

"Yes?"

"Well, I've been with you for years now, and I don't have a name..."

Throvlad narrowed his eyes, "I do seem to talk to you a lot, don't I?"

"Yes..."

"I might as well give you one."

"Really" the creature jumped in excitement, "I really deserve a name?"

"Yes," the king paused for a few seconds to think of a name, "I like Steve."

"S-Steve? Really? You must be joking," the creature complained, "Do you have any good ideas?"

Throvlad's eyes narrowed, "YOU SHALL BE NAMED STEVE AND YOU'LL LIKE IT!" he shot a bolt of cyan lightning at Steve's feet, making him yelp in panic, and run out of the room.

Steve ran through the hallway until he thought he was at a safe distance. He saw his friend close by, and went over to talk.

"So, how'd it go?" the other creature asked.

"Master gave me a name..." Steve frowned and stared at the floor.

"Really? What is it! That's a HUGE honor to be have a name!"

"... Steve."

The creature put his paws over his mouth and tried to not burst out laughing, but he couldn't contain it, "BAHHHAHAHA!" he fell onto his back and rolled on the floor, "STEVE? That's the stupidest name I've ever heard!"

Steve glared at his laughing friend, "Shut up."

* * *

><p><strong>Skye: Introducing Steve!<br>**

**Steve: Shut. Up.  
><strong>

**Tabetha: Calm down, steve...  
><strong>

**Steve: I HATE MY NAME!  
><strong>

**Thorvlad: Review... I'm the bad guy, so I won't say please :]**

**Janna: *smacks on the head with a rock* You should always say please! I apologize for Kingy's behavior here.**

**Skye: Reviews are greatly appreciated! :D 333333  
><strong>


	11. Chapter 10

**Skye: and now we get into double didgets!**

**Nova: You edit too slow! I've already written up to chapter 25!**

**Skye: You write to fast!**

**Jolie: And all the time that Nova is writing, she owns none of Sega's characters...**

**Cassandra: Will you STOP doing that!**

**Jolie: No. :)**

**Cassandra: :iconheadexplodeplz:**

**Janna: Ummm... Icons don't work on FF, Cassandra**

**Cassandra: rats.  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Everyone was relaxing in the main room of Team Free's base so Sonic and the others could rest and regroup while Team Free explained to them about the present situation, but Amy and Cream couldn't sit still like the rest, and kept looking around, "What's that? Can I touch it?" they kept asking.<p>

Cassandra finally decided to give them a tour because they wouldn't shut up and she was getting annoyed.

"Come on, you two," she called, "I'll show you around."

"Yay!" Cream exclaimed, and hugged the tiger. "Thank you Miss Cassandra!"

"Uh, okay..." Cassandra spoke, not used to being hugged. "This is my room," she smiled with pride, gesturing to a room at the corner of the hallway that went to the bedrooms in the back of the base. It was painted bright red, and had CASSANDRA painted on it in jagged black letters. "It's way better then Nova's."

"I heard that!" Nova spoke back, her eyes shot over to the tiger, and away from her laptop screen, "How is it better?"

The tiger smiled, "Because your room is so dark and emo."

"I'm not emo!"

Cassandra laughed, and led the duo down the hallway until they were out of sight from the rest of the group.

"This is Janna's room," Cassandra pointed at the first door they came to in the next hallway. "Skye's is the next one down, and then Nova's."

Cream spoke up, "Why is Miss Nova's room so far away from yours?" she asked innocently.

"Uhh... we have complications when we're too close to each other." Cream still looked confused, but didn't push the matter any further.

"Any other rooms we should know about?" Amy asked. "The base seems pretty small if it's just the living room and these bedrooms."

"Well, there is Skye's lab. I could ask Skye if we could go in there. She could explain it better than I could." Cassandra then led Amy and Cream back to the main room.

"What's Skye good at, anyway?" Amy questioned curiously, "She has a lab... Does she do chemistry?"

"She's good with computers and stuff... and she has a welding rod and other little 'toys.' I don't really know because I don't really pay attention to it," the tiger shrugged, "Well... That's about all I can show yah, let's go back to the main room and you can ask Skye if you can go in her lab." The Rabbit and Hedgehog followed the tiger back to the main room. Janna, who was lying down on the couch with her bad leg propped up and watching Jo play one of her games, greeted them.

"Hey, you two, did Cassandra show you around?"

"Yes! We're going to ask Skye if we can look at her lab." Amy explained.

"How are you feeling Miss Janna?" Cream politely asked with a smile on her face.

Janna turned to Cream with a smile, "I feel better!"

"Before I forget... Take these," Jo paused her game and handed the jaguar some gummy bears. Janna ate them happily.

"You need to remember to take them because I'm tired of reminding you." the galabat scolded teasingly.

Amy looked confused, "Gummy bears?"

Jo smiled, "It's Janna's medicine, I made gummy bears with her ADHD medicine in them. It calms her down so she doesn't get too excited, and keeps her calmer when we fight." The galabat looked over at Nova; the tenrec had headphones in her ears, and she was typing on her laptop. "What are you doing, Nova?" Jo asked.

The tenrec took her headphone off, "What?"

"What are you doing?"

"Conference."

"Over the computer?"

"Yes, everyone's there and I'm just listening in and typing back my replies. Why?" Nova typed 'Be right back' into her computer and pressed 'Enter.'

Jolie looked at Nova with confusion, "We could've done that from day one and you never told us? Come on!"

"What? I was told I could do this today through messaging! It's not like I ever knew." Nova shrugged and put her headphones back on.

"Liar," Cassandra glared at Nova.

Cream spoke up, "Miss Jolie, do you know where Miss Skye is? I want to see if she'll show us her lab!"

"Actually, she's in there right now with Tails. They're making some more beds for you guys. Both of them have been in there since we got back."

The rabbit jumped with joy, "Yay! Come on, let's go!" Suddenly, she stopped, and looked sheepishly back at Jolie. "Um, would you mind showing Miss Amy and I where the lab is? We don't know..."

"Sure!" Jolie smiled. "Let's go."

Jolie started walking to a door away from the bedrooms on the opposite side of the room. Amy and Cream followed her. The galabat stopped when she reached it and knocked on the door loudly. A loud banging noise could be heard from inside.

"Skye? Ya in there?" Jo called out.

"One sec!" Skye's voice replied. Jolie could hear her and Tails talking for a moment, then the noises stopped momentarily, and Skye opened the door. She had a welding mask pushed back on her forehead, and a welding torch in her hand.

"Whatcha need, Jo? Tails and I are kind of in the middle of something."

"Um," Jolie answered, glancing back at Cream and Amy, "These two want to take a look at your lab."

"Well..." Skye pondered the idea for a moment, "I guess so. Just be careful not to touch anything unless I say it's okay."

"Yes, Miss Skye!" Cream exclaimed happily.

"Wanna come, Jo?" the brown cat asked.

"Nah, You go ahead. It's your lab."

Skye nodded, and took the rabbit's hand, and led her in with Amy following.

"Wow..." Amy gasped when she saw the interior. On one end, there were about 20 different screens, all showing live video from what seemed to be outside, and at the entrances.

"Those are the security cameras," Skye explained, leading the hedgehog and rabbit over to the screens. "They monitor the outside entrances and all the rooms in the base. Except for this one, of course."

Tails looked up from where he was welding two pipes together to form a new bed frame. Smiling, he took off his mask and welding gloves, and meandered over to Skye.

"Mind if I listen in? I didn't get a chance to explore this place myself when I first came in."

Skye jumped in surprise, and blushed. "Um... sure, I guess. Okay!" She turned back to the screens. There was a large speaker implanted in the wall next to the group of screens. "That speaker over there sounds an alarm if there's an intruder, basically anyone who tries to break down one of the doors without typing in the password, or breaks one of the cameras or keypads. Or anyone who decides to go swimming in the lake. It also works as an intercom between rooms."

"Why would anyone want to go swimming in this area?" Amy asked, "It's really cold out!"

Skye grinned. "It gets warmer. Also, this lake is warm because of all the heat exhaust expelled from the base here. Hey, that reminds me! It's April fools day today!" The cat paused for a moment. "Strange... I haven't had anything explode in my face yet, today..."

Tails laughed. "Somehow I'm getting the impression that with your friends, pranking is an annual tradition."

"That's about right!" the cat replied back.

"Miss Skye?" Skye felt a tug on her hand, and she looked down. Cream was pointing to an object almost hidden in the back corner of the room. It was fairly large, and covered by sheets. "What's that thing over there?"

"Oh, that..." the cat spoke uncomfortably, "That's nothing... just a little something I've been working on... Nothing special..."

The door opened, and interrupted Skye's statement, much to her relief. It was Boo.

"Hey, guys!" the bear called out, "Nova wants us all back in the living room."

"Okay!" Cream smiled happily. The four headed over to the door and back to the living room, abandoning their work and tour.

"Nova, what is it?" Skye asked, when everyone was grouped back in the living room. The tenrec had set her laptop down.

"Apparently these folks didn't know that they were on a different planet."

"What?" Tails exclaimed, "We're not on Mobius?"

"What's a Mobius?" Janna asked curiously.

"It's the planet we live on... or used to apparently," Knuckles' eyebrows were furrowed into a grimace. "I don't know how we're going to get back. Apparently we're on a planet called Cypris."

"Skye and I already fixed the X- Tornado," Tails commented changing topics, "She's a great engineer!"

Skye blushed again. _Why do I keep doing that? _the cat scolded herself.

"I guess you guys are just going to have to stay here until we can find a way to get you back home." Jolie stated.

Everyone agreed.

The sound of running feet crashing against leaves that had fallen the winter before. Whoever was running was making a racket, but he didn't care; this was an emergency. A male bat clad in jeans and a jacket came into view.

_I'm going too slow, _he thought, so he let out his wings and flapped them; he was airborne. Increasing their speed, the trees whizzed by at an alarming rate. After a few minutes, he stopped by a tree standing in front of a lake; he paused for a moment to catch his breath, but quickly jumped up and pressed a button that made a keypad appear. The bat punched in the code and spoke into the microphone that appeared. When nothing happened, the figure punched in another code that would open the door if no one was there to receive his entrance call. The door slowly started to open from inside the tree.

"Come on... Come on!" he impatiently yelled at the door. The door wasn't completely open, but the bat ducked his head under it, and ran down the stairs and into the hallway.

A few seconds passed, when he reached the door that would open to the main room. Without thinking, he kicked the door with all of his might. A huge dent formed in it.

"Open, stupid door!" he yelled, and then he remembered that there was another keypad he had to unlock. "What is it with you and keypads, Skye?" the bat exclaimed, and typed in the password again. The door jammed, probably a side effect from his kick. "Door, why do you hate me so much!"

With all of his strength, the bat shoved at the door, and it opened, since it'd already been unlocked with the password, slammed against the wall, and the bat fell face first onto the floor. "Mmurph."

Screams from shock came from everyone; mostly sonic's group, since they had never seen him before.

"Drek? What are you doing here!" Jo exclaimed.

"S-sorry," Drek stood up and tried to refill his lungs, "B-but..."

Amy stared at Drek. "Who are you?"

"I-I'm... Jolie's younger brother."

"You have a brother?" Sonic asked, looking over to Jolie. "He looks nothing like you! Well, except for the wings, but–"

Nova spoke up. "She can explain that later. Drek, what happened?"

Skye yelled, "What was so important that you had to barge in here like that? That was my best door, too! That wall didn't just take five minutes to make, either!" The normally cheerful brown cat was now glaring at him.

Drek widened his eyes and backed up. Skye's bracelets were starting to glow. "Kyrptonia! It's being attacked by a huge monster! You guys gotta help us out!"

"You army people couldn't do it yourself?" Jo asked, "Normally they can bring down those things..."

"But this isn't a normal one!" Drek spread his wings out, "It's about 5 stories tall! Maybe taller!"

"Excuse me for butting in, but what are you?" Rouge asked Drek.

"I'm a bat."

"You're not a hybrid like your sister?"

Drek smiled, "No, she's the hybrid of the family. We have a galago brother, Owen. Mom's a galago. Dad's a bat."

Cassandra butted in. "Look, I hate to break into your conversation, but we can talk about this later! Drek, show us this monster." Flames appeared around Cassandra's fists.

"Okay." Drek replied meekly, "Follow me!"

The highest hill in the Majon forest was perfect for looking over the beautiful city of Kryptonia, as it was at the edge of the forest, but there was one problem with the view. It wasn't beautiful with a huge mutated creature destroying it.

The creature resembled some of the smaller ones that had attacked before. It had spiked armor covering it from head to toe, and a long spiked tail. It's jaws were filled with jagged teeth that didn't look too welcoming.

"So that's what was being planned..." Nova murmured, thinking back to the past month, when there had hardly been any attacks.

Boo looked over at Nova, who was staring at the creature with hate. Nova's bracelets were glowing, as if radiating out her anger.

"Nova? What should we do? Go save them, and risk our identities, or stay here, and let the city be torn down?"

Janna, who was on crutches, spoke up, "I'll go! I'm good at long distance attacks!"

Cassandra shook her head, "You know how Nova doesn't like us going out, she'll never let us go anywhere where we can be seen that easily... Especially in Kryptonia."

Nova wasn't listening to them at all, only watching the creature rampage through the city, leaving no mercy as it destroyed buildings, and probably crushing innocent Cypronians. She imagined all the families morning over the deaths of their loved ones, Cypronians stranded homeless and starving, all because that creature. She knew what it felt like to be without family and be filled with hopelessness; she knew how awful it was, and couldn't let that happen to anyone in the city.

The tenrec looked over at the group that was standing by her; they were all looking at the city in anxiety. No one else wanted this to happen either. She narrowed her eyes, glanced back at the city, then spoke slowly, "Guys... Get ready to get some fans."

Cassandra looked at the tenrec with confusion, "What? Fans? How?"

Nova glared at the tiger, "You heard me." The tenrec turned to Jolie, who was hovering over the ground. "Jo, I want you carry Cassandra and I to the city."

Jolie saluted her leader. "Will do, boss."

The tiger stomped her foot, "Why do you want me to go with you? You and I both know that I want to strangle you."

Nova rolled her eyes, "You want to but you won't. Jolie's going to fly us over that monster and drop us. We'll land on it's back and we can attack it from there."

Cassandra nodded, "I guess that works."

"Drek, you take Boo," the tenrec continued, "Janna, can you carry yourself on a rock?"

The jaguar jumped with excitement, "Yes!" The jaguar used her power to lift up a fairly large rock, and she sat on it, and set her crutches to her side, "I'm ready!"

"What about me?" Skye asked. "I may not be able to fly, but I want to help!"

"You're going to take the others down by foot into the path of the monster. Evacuate the buildings. Drek, Boo, and Janna, I want you to help them."

Skye nodded and walked over to Sonic and the others, "You heard her! Follow me!" the cat ran down the hill. The others looked at each other for a second and quickly started to run after her.

Nova looked over at Jo and nodded. The galabat jumped into the air and flapped her wings. She flew over to Cassandra first and picked her up; both of them locked hands, then flew over to Nova who grabbed onto Cassandra's ankles. "Let's do this!"

"Still no sign of them," Steve pointed out for the millionth time, while standing next to Throvlad and looking at the computer screen, "Don't you think that letting out our biggest one was a good idea? I mean, it's a prototype..."

Thorvlad smiled, "In time, Steve. They'll come. Plus, it's good that we're able to test out the experiment... It's good for him."

Steve frowned, "If you think so..."

The king stood up, "Tabetha, are you ready for your first mission?"

The cat was lounging on a chair close to the king and his assistant. "The question is, do you think you're ready?"

"For what?"

"To see blood," an evil smile appeared on the cat's face, "It's gonna be fun slitting their throats."

Throvlad gave a nervous smile, "Well... plans have changed," the king pressed a button on his keyboard, and the Red Chaos Emerald came out of the ground on a pedestal. "I need you to find the the holder of the red bracelets."

Tabetha's eye twitched, "WHAT? You said I could kill them!" the cat picked up her chair and threw it at the wall, making the wooden chair shatter.

"But then I found _this_," the gray-furred wolf picked it up with a cloth so the emerald wouldn't shock him. "You see, this is called a Chaos Emerald. The Emeralds are what made the bracelets. Without those rocks, there wouldn't be these," he showed one of his bracelets with his other hand.

"So... What do you want me to do with that red rock?"

Throvlad smiled, "I want you to go to Kryptonia and find the one with the red bracelets."

The cat leaned on the wall, "But Steve said that they weren't there."

"They will be... In time. I promise."

Tabetha raised an eyebrow, "After I find the owner of the red bracelets, what do I do? Beat her with the Emerald? Cut her feet off?"

"I said that the Emerald is what created the bracelets in the first place, so what I want you to do is control the bracelets."

"How?"

"The Emerald is 'in charge' of the bracelets, so whoever is holding the Emerald at the time has the power to control the owners body and mind, and they'll do whatever you say," the king's smile got bigger, "Once we get all of the emeralds back, we'll be able to control them all."

The brown cat crossed her arms, "What's in it for me? I only joined your side so I could fight, and because you promised me a position of power once we take over Cypris."

"You can become the leader of all of them, and if you have a least favorite, you can kill one of them and transfer their blood to yours, so you can have your own pair," Throvlad stuck out his hand, "Deal?"

Tabetha stared at his hand for a few seconds _I can be their leader. I can kill one. There will be blood. _With an evil smile, she shook the king's hand.

"That's my girl."

Steve smiled at the screen, "Master, they're here... At least three of them."

Throvlad and Tabetha ran up to the screen. One was flying, and two others were holding on to it. "Wait... Zoom in on that bottom one," the king commanded Steve. The camera zoomed in and Throvlad widened his eyes, "Nova?"

"You know her, Master?" Steve asked with confusion in his eyes.

Throvlad narrowed his eyes, "She's changed over the years. Tabetha, use the one with the red bracelets to get the one with the purple hair. No harm put onto her."

"B-but you said that I could kill or hurt anyone I wanted!" the cat protested, "What if I don't like her?"

Throvlad glared at the angry cat, "It's been my life goal to kill the one holding the purple bracelets. Plus, she won't struggle after she finds out that I have something she wants..."

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><p><strong>Tabetha: Long Chapter! :D<br>**

**Nova: You are very violent, child...**

**Tabetha: Nova must die...  
><strong>

**Skye: Down, tabby. **

**Tabetha: :)**

**Cassandra: Odd...**

**Janna: Review please! :D**


	12. Chapter 11

**Nova: And now for the final chapter we will post today, Chapter 11.**

**Skye: Why there are no more being posted today, you ask? Well...**

**Jolie: Skye hasn't edited any more chapters, in which we don't own any Sega characters.**

**Janna: Come on! I want a turn!**

**Jolie: I stole the disclaimer from Cassandra. It's mine now. :D  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Cassandra and Nova landed on the creature's back, and the tenrec looked down at Boo, Drek, and Janna, who had arrived faster than Skye and the others, having flown. "Get everyone somewhere safe!" she commanded, the three nodded and went off to help everyone they could find. Nova smiled at the tiger, "You ready?"<p>

Cassandra grinned devilishly back, "What's your plan now?" Even though she hated the tenrec, she still loved to get some action.

"Well this one has a new design... Which means we don't know its weak spot."

Daggers appeared in Cassandra's striped, glove-less hands. "So stab it everywhere 'til it's dead?"

Nova's shadow vanished and her sword took shape, "That's the plan!" The two raised their weapons and used full strength to push them down into the creature's back, making it let out a loud ear-splitting roar. The monster bucked up and down to try to get the two off, but they didn't budge. They were holding onto their weapons logged in the creature's back for dear life.

The creature's face turned and faced the tiger and tenrec. A piece of machinery was attatched to it's forehead. "Is that a... camera?" Cassandra asked.

Nova's eyes widened, "We're being filmed. Get your weapon and get off this thing!"

"Why?"

"Whoever sent this creature wanted to see us. We've been invisible to them for a reason; so they didn't know what we look like, or who we are."

The tiger looked at Nova with concern, "Is this all a trap?"

Nova's eyes narrowed, "It looks like it!" she pulled her sword out of the monster's back and it screamed in pain again. She ran up to the camera and slashed it in two, making it explode.

"Cassandra! Get off!" Nova yelled at the tiger, but she didn't move.

"No."

"What?" That didn't sound like Cassandra's voice...

Cassandra fell on her knees, "N-Nova... Run!"

Nova looked at the tiger with concern, "Why?"

Cassandra's bracelets were glowing furiously. She turned to face Nova, but she was different; her eyes were blood red, the _entire_ eye. Her daggers formed in her hands again. "Prepare to die."

Tabetha's evil smile got larger as she witnessed what she'd done; Cassandra was under her power. She could control what she said, did, everything. She loved the feeling of fiery power rushing through her body.

Steve was sitting right by the cat on top of the large skyscraper a safe distance away from biggest creature as she controlled all of Cassandra's actions. "Tabetha?"

"What? I'm on a roll!"

"Master said that you can't kill her, or harm her as a matter of fact," Steve glared at the cat, "He would be very angry at you if you did anything to her."

"Master, Smaster! He's not here! In my opinion, he didn't give enough reasons for me not to hurt her!"

"But Master said that-"

"I DON'T CARE!" Tabetha's eyes were glowing the same color as Cassandra's, that threatening blood-red color.

Steve backed away, "Tabetha? What's wrong? I don't think that you should be in charge of that Emerald anymore."

The cat turned to Steve and she hit his face with her claws, making blood seep out of the cuts, "I want what Throvlad wants; POWER! I'll do whatever it takes!"

Steve's eyes narrowed, "That's not you, Tabetha. That's Cassandra's personality, wanting to be leader again, to be in charge. Put down that Emerald," he commanded.

"Make me!" the cat taunted.

"Fine!" Steve jumped onto the cat, making her drop the Emerald off the building, and causing both of them to fall off.

Tabetha re-gained consciousness from her 'Controlling Cassandra' moment. She looked down to see she was falling down towards the street at a very fast pace. She let out a loud scream as she plummeted down further and further.

Steve, who was falling beside her at the same rate, grabbed onto the cat's sweatshirt with his teeth and dug his sharp nails into a building's wall. Wincing in pain as shattering glass and hard concrete hit his paws, but finally he stopped. They were hanging halfway down the building. His sharp teeth had ripped a huge hole in Tabetha's sweatshirt, but she didn't care. "Steve! You saved my life!"

Steve kept holding Tabetha's sweatshirt in his teeth, "That's what teams do, they look out for each other." His voice was muffled from the sweatshirt. With a shove, he burst through the wall, and both of them landed inside the building. Tabetha smiled as she stood up and brushed the building dust off of her, "Thanks Steve."

The cat's smile vanished as she looked down at the street. "Oh no! I dropped the Emerald! Thorvlad's gonna kill me!" She went into the state of panic.

"We can just say that you dropped the Emerald off the building and Team Free was nearby, and we didn't want want to be seen so we didn't go after it."

"What's wrong, tenrec?" Cassandra asked, "Don't wanna hurt one of your precious team mates?" the tiger stepped closer, her eyes still glowing that dangerous red color. She lunged out towards Nova but the tenrec dodged Cassandra's attack.

"Cassandra... Stop it. This isn't you. I know you hate me but this isn't you. What's wrong?"

The tiger smiled, showing her sharp teeth, "Oh nothing, I just want you out of my way. I want to be- wait. No. I _need_ to be leader again. Leadership is in my blood, not yours."

The two started circling each other on the creature's back, what Nova didn't realize is that there was more then just a camera on its forehead, but others were built into the creature's eyes. Thorvlad was watching everything that the two did.

Nova signed, "Look, Cass. I'm sorry that I became leader, but I-"

"ENOUGH!" Cassandra lunged straight at Nova, and the tenrec didn't have enough time to react. Cassandra's sharp claws slashed through Nova's cheek, making her fall back.

Nova put her hand up to her cheek and felt blood dripping down her fingers. The wound was pretty deep, but she didn't feel the pain. She got back up, "You would never do that, even if you threatened you would, you wouldn't. It's not your nature," her purple eyes narrowed as she prepared herself to attack. Cassandra's eyes suddenly widened and flashed white before Nova attacked her, and she stumbled backwards and fell backwards onto the monster's back. The confused tenrec ran up to her, "Cass?"

The tiger's eyes opened, and they were normal again,"Wha...? Nova?"

A sigh of relief escaped Nova's mouth, "You're okay."

"Okay? OKAY?" the tiger got up and yelled in the tenrec's face, "YOU THINK I'M OKAY!"

Nova backed up a little at her outburst. Cassandra's voice got a little calmer, "Whatever happened, I didn't like it."

The creature blinked, letting its filming session end before it bucked the two Team Free members off its back.

Cassandra yelled at Nova before they hit the ground, "We will NEVER talk about what just happened... AGAIN! Or I'll cut you cheek again!"

Nova's eyes widened _Oh crap, my cheek's still covered in blood. _"AGREED!"

The two grabbed onto a light pole and swung to the ground.

Boo smiled at the creature's cry in pain as she continued to help the members of the city, "Janna! Pick up as many Kryptonians as you can on rocks! It'll make everything faster!"

Janna nodded and flew over to a group of kids panicking in a corner, "You guys will be okay," she gave a reassuring smile, "Who wants to fly on a rock!" The group just stared at the jaguar for a few seconds, but the children soon jumped over to her and got on the rock, "I'll be back in a little bit! Hang in there!"

Boo looked over to Drek, who was helping a older man out of the nursing home who was in a wheelchair, "Don't worry, sir. Everything will be fine if you just let me carry you to a safe spot."

"Pheh!" the hedgehog hissed, "I can take care of myself!"

Drek looked at the man with concern, "Are you blind? There's a huge monster destroying the city!"

"... There is? Yes, I actually am blind," the man replied.

"Haven't you even heard the monster's yells?"

"That's from the creature? I thought it was from my wife..." Drek turned around to see the creature coming in their direction. He quickly grabbed the elderly hedgehog with care and flew him to a safer area where other Kryptonians were gathered.

"Did you just save me?" the hedgehog asked.

Drek smiled, "Yes," he jumped into the air and raced back to the city, meeting up with Boo, "I just got the last one from the retirement home. Some more citizens in the city and the staff in the building got all the others."

Janna joined their side on her floating rock, "And I just got all the stragglers from the apartments!"

Boo looked over to Drek, "Could you to scan over the city for anyone else? You know what to do if you see one. If there's nobody left, come back here and you can help us attack," the bat jumped into the air and was ready to take off, but he looked back at the bear, who was still smiling at him.

"Keep safe Boo!" he shouted back at her. The bat flapped his wings to get higher into the air then took off. Boo blew a kiss in his direction.

Janna smiled at Boo, oblivious to what had just happened. "Hey! You're pretty good at being leader! You should be leader of our team when Nova and Cassandra are gone!"

Boo laughed, "HECK NO! I would have a nervous breakdown!

Skye stepped onto a sidewalk of the city near where the monster was attacking along with the others, "Everyone here?" The cat could see Boo and Janna up ahead, and Drek and Jolie's flying forms were dark spots in the sky.

Sonic tapped his foot, "I would've been here in five seconds if I ran by myself!"

Amy slapped the back of the blue hedgehog's head, "We could've lost Cream if you ran ahead!"

Cream frowned, "I'm sorry I'm not fast at running... Having short legs doesn't help at all."

Skye smiled at the rabbit, "You did fine," her eyes narrowed as she looked up at the monster, "What's going on up there?"

"What do you mean?" Knuckles questioned the cat.

"Nova and Cassandra should be up there but I don't see them, and it looks like they're not attacking it at all." As soon as she spoke, two figures came running toward them on the ground from the creature's other side. It was Cassandra and Nova. The stopped when they reached Skye and the others. "What just happened? Why isn't that monster dead yet?" Skye looked at the two in concern.

Nova's back was facing the group, and she had her hand over her cheek so they couldn't see her face. She knew Skye hated blood.

"Something happened," Cassandra sighed, "But we did find out that had a camera and it was filming us."

The brown cat looked at them with shock, "So that's why you didn't do what was according to plan?"

"Exactly," the tiger partially lied, "Nova, want to go fight it?"

Nova's right hand was on her cheek and she was trying to put pressure on it, but it wasn't working, the wound was too deep. _Screw it. _She removed her hand from the wound showing everyone her blood-drenched glove. The tenrec pulled the glove off and threw it on the ground, blood leaked out of it as it sat on the ground.

Skye's eyes widened, "What happened?" she spoke haltingly, and quickly turned away from the glove, feeling sick to her stomach. _Stupid hemophobia..._

"That doesn't matter right now," Nova stated, "We need to bring down that monster before it destroys anything else. Jo can look at the wound later."

Skye nodded, "Let's kick this thing's butt, everyone!"

* * *

><p>Thorvlad looked down at Tabetha and Steve. They were both beat up from the minor fight they had and they were covered in cuts from the shattered glass, "What happened?"<p>

"We had a small fight and fell off the building we were standing on," Steve admitted.

"And the Emerald?"

Tabetha frowned, "I dropped it."

Thorvlad disappointingly frowned at her and changed positions in his chair. He let out a sigh and tried to think of what to say. "I guess I can let you go _this_ time," he motioned his hand in a 'Shoo' motion. Steve and Tabetha bowed their heads before leaving the room. _I'm becoming a softy to that cat._

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><p><strong>Tabetha: Nova! You made me lose the emerald!<strong>

**Nova: How? I wasn't even near you!**

**Tabetha: You wrote the story!**

**Nova: . . .  
><strong>

**Skye: We love reviews! Please review! We accept anonymous reviews!  
><strong>


	13. Chapter 12

**Skye: The magic of flashbacks...**

**Jolie: Flashbacks where none of us own Sonic and co**

**Cassandra: sonic and co belong to SEGA**

**Janna: :))))))))))))**

* * *

><p>-4 years ago-<p>

A doorbell rang melodiously though a quiet home, echoing through the halls. A few seconds passed, until the door cracked open, "Yes?" the figure who opened the door asked.

A smile appeared on the one that rang the doorbell's face, "I'm looking for someone with the surname 'Crest.' Did I come to the right place?"

_That voice..._ The one holding the door swung it open, revealing a male tenrec. Tears of joy fell down her cheeks... It was her husband. "Rodge!"

Rodge smiled, "Hi, Lav." they both reached for each other and kissed.

After the two broke their embrace, Lavender looked at her husband with confusion, "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be out fighting in the war?"

Rodge simply smiled, "Oh? Did I forget to tell you I'm on vacation?"

Lavender punched him lightly on the arm, "You forgot to tell the most important tenrecs in your world?"

"It seems like I have... Where's our daughter?"

Rodge's wife smirked at him, "More like you wanted to surprise us! She's at the Dercare's place!"

The male tenrec picked up his wife bridal style, "Well, let's go pay her a little visit!"

Lavender chuckled, "I missed you so much."

"And you think I haven't?" the couple nuzzled their noses together as Rodge started walking to the Decare residence.

"Go fish."

"What? NO! You just asked for that card last round!" Zwei grabbed his older brother's cards and threw them on the ground. "That card's mine!" he pridefully took the card from his older brother, Eins.

"HEY!" Eins yelled, "THAT'S CHEATING!"

"AND YOU WEREN'T?" the brothers tackled each other and began fighting on the floor.

"Eins! Zwei!" a female voice yelled, "You're acting like five year olds!"

The brothers stopped fighting and looked up. "Sorry, mom," they both hung their heads.

The brothers' mom walked over to two younger children, "Look! Even Drei and Nova are acting better then you do, and how much younger are they?"

Eins looked up angrily, "Five and seven years."

Zwei started to stare at the ground, "Four and six years."

"That's what I thought! Now you two act like your ages!" She pointed to Eins, "You act like a seventeen year old," then she pointed at Zwei, "and you act like a sixteen year old!" she then marched up the stairs.

"Heh, mom yelled at you guys... Again," Drei taunted.

Zwei smiled, "Nova, how many times this week so far?"

Nova pulled out her notebook and read the 'How many times Marge has yelled at Zwei and Eins this week' list, "Nine and counting!"

The two brothers high fived each other, "Yeah! New record!"

A knocking at the door interrupted the kids' cheering. The four looked up at the door until Drei finally yelled, "Mom! Dad! Someone's at the door!"

"Then answer it!" Marge yelled back.

"We're too busy playing 'Go Fish!'" Drei and the others chuckled as Nova put her list in her pocket.

Marge yelled with annoyance in her voice, "Honey! You get it!"

A deep voice yelled back, "Fine!" he walked over to the door and looked at the four kids staring at him. "You're all lazy." All five of them laughed.

"We know, dad!" Eins remarked.

The boys' father, Trent, opened the door and his eyes widened with shock, "Hello."

Rodge set down his wife, "Mind if we come in?" she asked.

Trent's eyes widened, and he smiled. "I don't mind at all!" The door opened and Nova saw her mom.

"Is it time to go?" a frown appeared on her face, "I'm playing 'Go Fish.'"

Rodge poked his head through the door so he could be in view of the kids, "You can stay if you don't wanna say hi to me."

Nova's eyes widened with shock, "Daddy!" she ran up to him and jumped into his arms, "I missed you! What are you doing here!"

Lavender put her hands on her hips. "He managed to get a few days off for your birthday."

Rodge set his daughter down and she kept hugging him, "Wow, you've grown! How long have I been gone?"

"Six months," Marge pointed out before giving Rodge a hug, "Good to see you again."

Rodge smiled and looked down at his daughter, "Have the boys been beating you up while I was gone?"

Zwei stood up, "Nope! We're good boys!" the three brothers laughed along with Nova.

"They've been good," the youngest tenrec hugged at father tighter, "How long are you going to be here for?"

Rodge frowned, "Only three days, today being one of them... That's as long as I could get."

Lavender smiled, "Let's enjoy it while we can! Nova, it's time to go home. We have to get ready for your birthday party!"

* * *

><p>Nova blew out her birthday candles; she was finally 10 years old. "I feel so old!" Everyone laughed around her; it was a small party, just family and close friends, but they were having a great time. Nova looked up at her father, "Can we go play now?"<p>

Even though it was the end of January, January 21st to be exact, it was warm out. That was one of the bonuses of living on a tropical island.

Rodge smiled, "I haven't given you my gift yet!"

"What is it! What is it!" Nova jumped with excitement.

Nova's father reached into his pocket and pulled out two purple bracelets. Lavenders eyes widened. "Do you really think she's old enough?"

"Yes. I got these when I was seven. She's old enough," he slipped the bracelets on his daughter's wrists, "Don't freak out; you're gonna feel numb."

Nova looked at him with confusion, "Why?" her eyes widened as her entire body became numb. "I feel funny!" She fell off the bench she was standing on, and Drei caught her.

"You okay?" Drei asked.

Nova tried to get up. "I'm dizzy." She lost her balance again and fell deeper into her friend's arms.

Rodge smiled, "Look at your hand where your birthmark is..."

The 10 year old tenrec looked at the back of her left hand, and her eyes widened, "Why is it glowing?" she tried to stand up again. "Hey! I'm not numb anymore!"

Lavender picked up a mirror and put it to her daughter's face, "Look at your eyes."

Nova's eyes were purple now. They weren't yellow. "Why did my eyes change color?"

"Because it's one of the weird things that happen when you wear the bracelets," Rodge pointed out while crossing his arms, "Now these bracelets take huge responsibility. Do you still want them now or when you're older?"

Nova looked back at Drei, "What do you think?"

Drei was Nova's closest friend, being together since Nova was only a week old. Nova didn't know it, but Drei had developed a crush on her for about three years now. "I think you look great."

Nova turned back to her dad, "Then I guess I'm keeping them! Thanks, daddy!"

Rodge hugged his daughter with a smile on his face, "I'm glad you like them."

* * *

><p>The sun rose over the city of Sentire, and rarely anyone was up, except for two families that wanted to say goodbye to their family member and friend. "Have fun out there..." Zwei fist-pumped Rodge.<p>

"I'll miss ya, bud," Rodge gave a weak smile and looked over at his wife and daughter; Lavender was hugging Nova, and was trying to fight tears while Nova's face was streaked with them. "Don't worry, Nova, I'll be back soon," he tried to comfort his daughter.

Nova's words were uneven because she was still crying, "T-that's what yo-you said l-last t-time," she let go of her mother and grabbed onto her father, "I d-don't want you t-to go."

Rodge frowned, "It's not my choice for this war to end or not... Just have faith, okay?" he hugged his daughter tighter, "I promise the moment I can come back, that I'll do anything to get here in the shortest time I can."

"Rodge!" another tenrec going back to the army yelled; it looked like he cried from leaving his family too, "Time to go!"

Rodge let go of his wife and daughter, "I love you. I'll be back as soon as I can." he started walking away to the other member of the army.

Nova screamed, "NO! DADDY! DON'T GO!" She started running after him but Lavender caught her.

"Nova! Calm down! He'll get back as soon as he can!" _Man, she's strong._

The ten year old kept squirming, "NO!" she pulled even harder to get out of her mother's grasp, "TAKE ME WITH YOU!"

Drei noticed that Lavender was about to get her go from exhaustion, so he ran up and gabbed onto Nova to help her mother out, "You don't wanna go! It's dangerous!"

Nova's voice rose, "I have the bracelets! I can fight!"

"No you can't!" Drei protested, "You just got them yesterday! You need to learn how to use them!"

"My daddy can teach me!" Nova felt a tingle on her birthmark when she saw a sword forming in her hands, "Let me go!"

Lavender saw the sword. "Nova.. Don't you even think about it!"

It was too late though, Nova swung her sword. Lavender jumped back and Drei ducked, but some of his quill got cut off. Nova started running in the direction of her father, "DADDY!" It was too late though. Rodge was already on the plane and it was about to take off. Nova tried to breathe but she couldn't, she was too tired. "DADDY!" she tried to be as loud as possible.

The plane took off and Nova took in a huge deep breath, "**DADDY!"**

* * *

><p>Rodge's face was in his hands as he tried to fight off tears. "I'm a terrible father."<p>

"No... You're actually not," the tenrec sitting next to Rodge tried to comfort him, "My family acted like that too..."

"**DADDY!**"

Rodge's ears perked up when he heard that; it was his daughter screaming for him, "I guess not like that," the other tenrec admitted.

"I feel so guilty... Coming home for my daughter's birthday and leaving the day after..."

The tenrec looked down at Rodge's wrists, "Where are your bracelets?"

"I gave them to my daughter..." Rodge's frown got bigger, "And I can't even teach her how to use them..."

_**Crack**_

A loud noise came from the back of the plane.

"What was that?" Rodge looked up.

"No idea..."

Rodge got up and walked down the aisle to the back of the plane, "Who's there?"

A pair of gold-red eyed opened and glared at him. "There he is," Rodge looked past the eyes to see a part of the plane torn out and creatures staring right at him.

Rodge's eyes narrowed, "What do you mean?"

The creature's collar glowed as it spoke, "Master wants you." The one speaking to Rodge didn't know about his future name, Steve. "If you don't want anyone to die on this ship, you'll come with us."

The tenrec stared blankly at the creature, "Are you telling the truth?"

"Yes."

Rodge felt a tug on his hands and felt cuffs grab onto his wrists. "What do you want with me?"

The creature smiled, "I don't want you, Master does." the other creature pushed Rodge into a bag and he didn't hesitate.

_ Well If I can really meet the one behind it all, that would help in this war..._ They sealed the bag up; the only thing he could see out of was a small hole in the side of the bag.

"Let's go," the creature commanded the other one that was working with him, "Let's see if these prototype wings work."

The other creature nodded, and grabbed the bag that Rodge was in, and followed 'Steve' as he took off. They were finally a safe distance away when the creature commanded, "Blow the evidence."

_**BOOM**_

Rodge looked out the hole in the bag to see the plane he was just in explode. "You said you wouldn't hurt anybody! There were tenrecs with families in there!"

"Not like I care," the creature snickered, "Ready to go meet Master?"

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><p><strong>Janna: Boom da boom da boom. I am da boom<strong>

**Skye: soooo, how'd you like it?**

**Boo: You should review. Recent studies conclude that reviewing helps prevent insanity**

**Rodge: Introducing Me!**

**Nova: Daddy!**

**Drei: Please, Review!**


	14. Chapter 13

**Skye: And yet, we're still in the 4 years ago part**

**Nova: :)**

**Rodge: YUSSSSS**

**Jolie: NONE OF US OWN ANY OF SEGA'S CHARCTERS!**

**Cassandra: :)**

* * *

><p>Hours passed, until Rodge could feel the bag he was in being set down. He looked out the hole, only to see darkness. "Where am I?"<p>

"Your new home," one of the creatures glared down at the bag, "You'll never see the light of day again. Only official lighting."

Rodge felt a frown appear on his face, "I can't see my family?"

"All of your records have been deleted; you never existed. The only ones that knew who you were would be your family and friends, but you'll never see them again," the creature paused, "The plane's info has been deleted too, but the ones that were on the plane are still alive."

"What? How?"

"I promised that nobody would get hurt. I sent another flying creature to get them out of the plane before it exploded." Rodge could feel the bag being dragged, "They don't know what happened because we changed their memories a bit."

Rodge sighed with relief, "At least they're safe."

A voice interrupted their conversation. "That's fine. Leave him there. You're dismissed."

"Yes, Master," the creature pulled a rope, which opened the bag Rodge was in then ran out.

Rodge's heart rate increased. _So... Here I am. The one that started it all has kidnapped me and taken me away from my family... _he swallowed a lump in his throat _What does he want from me? _

"You can get out of the bag now, Mr. Crest." the voice echoed through the empty room with annoyance in his voice, "Do you know why I wanted you here?"

Rodge slowly climbed out. Lights turned on, making Rodge squint his eyes, "I have no idea, but if you don't let me go you can't even imagine the consequences."

Dark laughter bounced off the walls around the room and resonated in Rodge's ears, "Believe me, if I can manage to keep this system of creatures working, I'll be able to keep a hostage in his cell..."

The tenrec's eyes had finally adjusted to the light, and he noticed that a chair was sitting in front of him, but it was turned around. "What do you want?" the tenrec asked. The chair slightly moved, and a pair of gray arms stuck out on each side of it. On his wrists were... bracelets... Rodge's eyes widened, "Cyan..."

"Oh? You like my bracelets?" the voice taunted.

"Those don't belong to you," Rodge's eyes narrowed.

The voice sounded a little uneven, "How do you know that?"

Rodge crossed his arms, "The Cyan Bracelets belong to a hedgehog family in Kryptonia..."

"Not anymore," the voice chuckled, "I killed the normal owner of these things years ago... That was my first attack, you know."

The tenrec felt a chill go up his spine, "Who are you?"

"Want me to give it away like that? Fine." the chair turned around, and a gray wolf sat in front of the tenrec. "Taadaa."

Rodge stared at the wolf for a few seconds, anger growing rapidly in his eyes. "King... Thorvlad!"

"You've heard of me?" Thorvlad smiled as he sat back in his chair.

"Yeah, I've heard of you," Rodge raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms, "I was at the ceremony where Cypris teamed up with your planet to help fight the creatures," he paused, "I was one of the guards; if I knew you were behind all of this, I would've killed you."

Thorvlad chuckled, "But you didn't," the king narrowed his eyes, "Now, back to why you're here."

Rodge straightened his back so he looked taller, "Why am I here then?"

The king smiled as he glanced at Rodge's blank wrists, "Where's your pretty jewelery?"

"They're not jewelery. You know that."

"Never mind that. I know where they are, which is why I kidnapped you."

Rodge's face changed to a worried expression, "What?"

"I know you gave your bracelets to your daughter. She doesn't know how to use them, so she's weak," Throvlad gave an evil smile, "I think you can guess what my plan is."

Rodge's eyes widened, "IF YOU LAY A SINGLE HAND ON MY DAUGHTER, I SWEAR I'LL-"

"Congratulations! You just thought of the correct answer!" Thorvlad clapped his hands, "Get him out of here."

Two creatures jumped out and grabbed the tenrec, and then started pulling him out of the room. "DON'T HURT HER! SHE'S ONLY TEN! DON'T!-" Rodge's ranting ended when the door he was being pulled out of shut.

Thorvlad smiled, "It's game over, tenrec."

* * *

><p>Rodge was thrown into his cell, "Please! I beg of you! Don't hurt my daughter! She's not involved in this!" He ran up to the front of the cell so he wouldn't be ignored, "Kill me instead!"<p>

One of the creatures looked down as its collar glowed, "This is his plan. I can't change it."

Tears started to form in the tenrec's eyes as he sat down, "Is there anything you can do? Can you delay it?"

The creature looked at the tenrec, "We're going to attack your family in a few months..." it admitted, "We're also planning on killing your wife. Thorvlad doesn't want any witnesses."

Rodge watched the creature leave the room and he let tears flow down his cheeks and his ears droop down, _Forgive me for not being there... Nova, Lavender._

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><p>Rodge sat in the corner of his cell and looked up at the clock and sighed. His ears drooping down like every other day but this day felt different to him. The sound of a door opening made him look up, but he didn't even move his ears to listen any better.<p>

"This is the cell room."

"It looks so empty..."

"There's only one prisoner..."

A creature and cat stood in front of the tenrec's cell. Rodge's green eyes glared up at them. "What do you want?"

Tabetha frowned at the tenrec, "How long has he been in here?"

"A little over four years," Steve admitted, "I helped kidnap him, actually."

Rodge stared at the creature; it was one of his kidnappers. It was the one that saved the other men on the plane he was on. "Age has taken its toll on you too, huh?" the tenrec commented.

Steve frowned, "Sadly, yes. Being an older design, I age just like you."

The tenrec let out a small laugh, "It sucks huh?"

"Yes it does."

"Who's the girl?"

Steve looked up at Tabetha, "Meet Tabetha. She's a new member of the team."

Rodge looked at the cat with confusion, "So he's working with teenagers now?"

Tabetha's frown grew larger, "I'm the only one, actually. I'm stronger than I look." Rodge stood up and the cat's eyes widened; Rodge looked much older then he actually was from the lack of care he'd gotten. Small highlights of gray fur trailed around his body, and he was skinny.

"Is he okay?" Tabetha asked Steve.

"I'm fine." Rodge walked up to the front of his cell and crossed his arms, "I'm used to it."

Tabetha couldn't hold in the question any longer, "Who are you?"

"I don't think that's a good idea to ask," Steve butted in.

Rodge looked down at the creature, "If you want to know, you can know. I'm Rodge. Rodge Crest."

"Crest?" Tabetha's eyes widened, "Are you-"

"I think we've talked to him long enough!" Steve put his paw over the cat's mouth.

Tabetha pushed Steve's paw away, "What was that for?"

"Master wouldn't like that we were in here." Steve started walking towards the door, "We should get going."

Tabetha stared into Rodge's eyes. She could see the pain in them. He'd lost everything that gave him the will to live, "No. I have to tell him, Steve."

Rodge raised an eyebrow, "Tell me what?"

The door leading to the cell room opened which made everyone jump, "Tabetha? Steve?" Thorvlad glared at the two, "What are you doing down here?"

"I-I was just giving her a tour!" Steve back away from his master, "I forgot what this room was so I let her in it!"

Tabetha put her hands on her hips, "What are you doing here, Kingy?"

"Just checking on my buddy." Thorvlad walked to Rodge's cell, "How's it going?"

Rodge glared at the wolf, "Go die."

"Oh! That's a good one!" Thorvlad laughed nervously.

"I love how everyone's laughing," the tenrec pointed out, "What's with your humor?"

Steve looked over to Rodge, "He has bad humor when he's nervous."

"Hmm? What makes you nervous, Thorvlad?" Rodge asked.

Tabetha tapped her foot, "Is it the fact that you have a challenge?"

Rodge looked at the cat with confusion, "Challenge? What challenge?"

Thorvlad crossed his arms, "I thought I could just make you laugh! How long has it been since you laughed, Rodge?"

The tenrec narrowed his eyes, "January 21st."

"Oh! A few months ago?"

"On my daughter's birthday. Four years ago," Rodge was staring daggers into Thorvlad's body.

Tabetha looked up, "Who's your daughter?"

Rodge looked at the cat, "Her name was Nova."

"Why are you using past tense?"

Rodge stared at the king, "She's dead."

Steve walked over to the door, "Well, I'm done with the conversation... I'm off." the creature nodded at Tabetha and she followed. Only Thorvlad and Rodge remained.

"Even if I die in here," Rodge glared into Thorvlad's eyes, "I just want you to know that you killed me years ago."

"I already know that," Thorvlad smiled, "and good news... I'm winning this war. Even if I do have those brats as a threat."

Rodge raised an eyebrow, "What brats?"

Thorvlad sighed, "Ones that call themselves Team Free... But soon they'll all be dead." the king walked out of the room and Rodge sat back in his corner.

The tenrec's eyes closed as images from his past raced through his mind...

_-Flashback-_

_ Nova stood looking over the land on a cliff with her chest puffed out, "When I grow up, I wanna be a hero like you, daddy!"_

_ Rodge smiled, "It takes a lot more the puffing your chest out to be a hero."_

_ "What do you mean?" Nova tilted her head in confusion._

_ "You have to save people in need... Things like that."_

_ Nova jumped onto a rock closer to the edge of the cliff, "Well then!" she put her hands on her hips, "I'll help people! I'll become friends with the ones that have the other bracelets and we'll be a team! I'll fight right by you!"_

_ "What would you name your team then?" Rodge smiled at his daughter._

_ "Well if we're fighting to be freed from this war... I'll name the group 'Team Free!"_

Rodge's eyes shot open and he stared at the floor blankly, "Nova's... Alive?"

-End of Flashback-

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><p><strong>Janna: So many flashbacks, so little time!<strong>

**Boo: And that's all we have for you today, folks! Tune in next time for new chapters!**

**Skye: ...**

**Cassandra: It works... I guess...**

**Nova: Reviews are GREATLY appreciated! Thank you so much to anyone who has reviewed. Which no one has yet. We DO accept anonymous reviews, so if you don't have an account, you can still review!**


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